I was going to make this a game of the day, but I'm so shocked I have to write a separate post. I'm seldom flabbergasted by baseball stats anymore. Colby Lewis winning eight games with a 7+ ERA doesn't throw me, because I know he has a good offense behind him. Detroit possibly losing 120+ games doesn't bother me, because you get a team this bad 2 or 3 times a century. But when I looked at the matchup in tonight's DBacks-Dodgers game, I was taken aback. The first thing I saw was that Ishii had a career record against the DBacks of 3-0 with a 1.22 ERA. But then I noticed the context. He's pitched 37 innings against the DBacks, and has walked 24 men! That's almost six per nine innings. How does that jibe with a 1.22 ERA?

I thought that maybe there were one or two games where he walked a lot of DBacks, but looking at the six games, his best outing was 2 BB in 5 1/3 innings. He's given up four HR in those 37 innings, accounting for all five runs he's allowed. And the base runner who scored on the two run homer reached by a HBP! None of the 24 batters Ishii has walked has come around to score! The Diamondbacks have not been able to execute against Ishii, going 0 for 18 with runners in scoring position against him with eight walks.

It's probably all luck, but it will be fun to keep an eye on this game tonight to see if it continues.