Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 20, 2008
Winning the Pot

Ricky Nolasco took home a little extra money Tuesday night:

Ricky Nolasco won a pot of cash for his first career complete game - thanks to the Marlins' nearly two-year drought without a pitcher going the distance.

Nolasco pitched a two-hitter for his first shutout and drove in two runs with his first double, leading the Marlins past the San Francisco Giants 6-0 on Tuesday night.

His reward: the money that had been accumulating in Florida's complete-game pool started some time after Anibal Sanchez pitched the last such game on Sept. 16, 2006, a major league-record 301 games ago.

Nolasco performed superbly in every aspect of the game. He threw strikes, with 78 of 110 pitches ending in a positive result. He showed great contol, walking just one batter. In striking out eleven, he reached double digits for the third time in his career, all this season. The strikeouts kept balls in play to a minimum, and only two made it through for hits. The bottom line for Ricky was his first career complete game and shutout and a new career high in wins with 12.

His control really came together after the all-star break. In the first half of the season, Nolasco averaged an excellent 2.3 walks per nine. Since, however, he's dropped that rate to 1.1 walks per nine. It's resulted in a better ERA but not a better record. Still, if he keeps this up he should have a very strong finish to this season and become a leader of the rotation going into 2009.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:56 AM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
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