Hitting in the clutch

There was an interesting quote from Lake Erie manager John Massarelli in a recent article in the Chronicle-Telegram that supported our statistic about Lake Erie's lack of quality starts. Massarelli told the newspaper "You look at the records of the starting pitchers for the four teams in the playoffs and compare them to ours, ours were a lot worse. We lost a lot of games before the fifth inning this year. A lot of them, we were down by five or six. When you give up big innings early, that hurts."

So how did Lake Erie stay in the playoff race until the final weekend if its starting pitchers produced the second-lowest number of quality starts?

The answer is the Crushers might have been the best team at hitting in clutch situations and coming from behind. Lake Erie led the league with 13 last at-bat wins. That means the Crushers scored the winning run in either the bottom of the eighth inning, the ninth inning or extra innings (change the numbers for seven-inning games) more than any other team. This statistic counts not only walk-off wins, but any victory in which a team produced the winning run in its final inning of batting.

Most Last At-Bat Wins
13 - Lake Erie
12 - Evansville
11 - Florence
11 - River City
11 - Schaumburg
 9 - Traverse City
 8 - Gateway
 8 - Washington
 7 - Rockford
 6 - Joliet
 6 - Windy City
 5 - Normal
 4 - London
 4 - Southern Illinois
 1 - Road Warriors

Useless information, midseason edition

With the All-Star break at hand, it's a good time to clean the notebook of some statistical drivel that reveals some interesting, and some rather predictable, things about the season's first half.

We know that starting pitching has usually been the Wild Things' strength. This year is no exception, though, as expected, the numbers have fallen off following last year's record-setting performance. Here's a look at the number of quality starts (at least six innings pitched and no more than three earned runs allowed) for each team:

Quality Starts
27 - Evansville
27 - London
25 - Schaumburg
23 - Washington
23 - Windy City
22 - Gateway
22 - River City
20 - Lake Erie
20 - Southern Illinois
20 - Traverse City
19 - Florence
19 - Joliet
18 - Normal
10 - Rockford

You can see why Rockford is last in the league in team ERA (note that two of the RiverHawks' 10 quality starts have come against Washington), but it's surprising that Lake Erie has the lowest ERA yet is in the middle of the pack in quality starts. This is mainly because Crushers manager John Massarelli, more often than any other manager, goes to his bullpen at the start of the sixth inning. Despite being tied for the lead in quality starts, London is in the bottom half of team ERA, which has been caused by its bullpen. As you can see below, the Rippers' relief pitching has been shaky when given a lead.

Blown Saves
10 - Florence
9 - Joliet
9 - London
8 - Washington
6 - Gateway
6 - Lake Erie
6 - Rockford
5 - Southern Illinois
5 - Traverse City
4 - Schaumburg
4 - Windy City
3 - Normal
2 - Evansville
2 - River City

One note about Washington's blown saves: the eight have come from seven different pitchers.

The standings in the West Division today show Schaumburg holding a one-game lead over Windy City and a three-game advantage over River City. As you can see above, the Boomers have gotten there with solid starting pitching and, despite what happened over the weekend against the Wild Things, some dependable relief pitching. But another aspect of Schaumburg's game is its ability to come through offensively in the late innings. The Boomers lead the league in wins in their final at-bat. We're not talking talking walk-off wins, but simply scoring the game-winning run in you team's final inning of batting (extra innings, ninth inning, bottom of the eighth for a home team). The statistic shows a team's ability to keep a game close and then find a way to win late.

Last At-Bat Wins
8 - Schaumburg
7 - Evansville
7 - Florence
7 - River City
6 - Gateway
4 - Lake Erie
4 - London
4 - Traverse City
4 - Washington
3 - Joliet
3 - Windy City
2 - Normal
2 - Southern Illinois
2 - Rockford

The interesting note about Washington's four last at-bat wins is three of them came in the first six games of the season, and they didn't have another until Sunday, the final game of the first half. Washington went a stretch of 40 consecutive games without a last at-bat win.

If you study these three statistics, the one question you might have is this: How is Evansville first in quality starts, have the fewest blown saves and is second in last at-bat wins, but yet is 11 games out of first place in the East? The answer is Otters simply don't score enough (12th in runs) to carry many leads into the late innings.

Best Game by a Hitter in the First Half: Rockford outfielder Javier Herrera, June 28 vs. Evansville. Herrera was 5-for-5, hit for the cycle and drove in 7 runs.

Best Game by a Pitcher in the First Half: Windy City's Mike Recchia, July 2 vs. Evansville. Recchia threw a 9-inning shutout, allowed only 3 hits and 3 walks. He struck out 16 and threw 146 pitches. In his next start, Recchia, had a 2-hit, 10-strikeout shutout of River City.