July 28, 2008
Ziegler's Zeros
Brad Ziegler set a record Sunday:
Ziegler pitched two scoreless innings Sunday afternoon at the Coliseum to take sole possession of the record for consecutive shutout innings at the start of a career. His 27 scoreless innings passed George McQuillan, who set the mark at 25 with Philadelphia in 1907.
On a day that fellow reliever Jerry Blevins and closer Huston Street had their own milestones in the A's 6-5 win over Texas, it was Ziegler who made the most significant mark on baseball history and was asked to send his cleats and hat to Cooperstown.
"I've never had anything handed to me in my career, and that makes this even more satisfying," said Ziegler, who twice has endured skull fractures, was released and relegated to an independent league and was asked to completely revamp the pitching delivery after his stellar minor-league numbers went unnoticed.
He's given up very few hits for a pitcher with low strikeout and walk totals. Opponents are hitting just .188 against him with no extra-base hits. He's striking out just 4.3 per nine innings. The Oakland defense must be playing great behind him.
Posted by David Pinto at
09:21 AM
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Some luck is at work. Ziegler gave up more than a hit per inning in the minors, compared to a little more than one hit every two innings so far in the majors. He's always had good control, though. And he did strike out almost a batter per inning in the minors.
Once the hits start falling in, Ziegler will give up some runs.
Well, he's had a low BABIP handed to him, right?
He may have given up more than a hit per inning in the minors, but a lot of that was as a starter. He was moved to relief last season and has been much better.
I predict someone will score a run off him.
But seriously, any pitcher who can engineer 27 consecutive shutout innings at any time in his career has something going for him -- plenty of skill, some luck. There percentage of pitchers who can pull this together at some point in their career is pretty low.
