Doug Fister made his first MLB start Tuesday night and earned a short shutout (or as Rob Neyer prefers, a shortout), allowing one hit over six innings. The Mariners fell to the White Sox, however, 3-1, as John Danks pitched eight strong innings for the win. With David Price pitching for the Rays last night as well, and two games left between Seattle and Tampa Bay, might a Price-Fister matchup be in the future?
Ichrio went one for four to maintain a .361 BA, but Joe Mauer collected three hits in four at bats to raise his BA to .369.
I know it’s as close to impossible as ‘mpossible’, but what average would Mauer have to bat at from now on to raise his average to .400?
@Alex Hayes: It’s not impossible, it’s just highly improbable. Mauer should have about 185 at bats left. That would give him 518 for the season. Two hundred seven hits would then give him a .3996 BA, which rounds to .400 and he would be credited with a .400 season. He would need 84 hits in his remaining 50 games, a .454 batting average.
What both Mauer and Ichiro are fighting right now to hit .400 is time more than anything else. At some point, they will need more hits than predicted at bats to reach .400, and then it becomes a truly impossible task. Right now for Ichiro, I think the odds are worse than 1 in 200,000, but for Mauer, they’re like 1 in 20,000 (I have the spread sheet at home. I’ll post the graphs later.)
@Alex Hayes: On the other hand, if he knocked out 17 straight hits, he would raise his average to .400 (140/350).