MiLB Game Scores from Week 6
By MiLB.com
By Ashley Marshall/ MiLB.com
Week 6 in the Minor League season saw parity among top pitching performances. But, for the first time this season, none of the best outings scored highly enough to crack the season’s overall top five list. Parker Bridwell, Kyle Hendricks, Max Garner and Jake Junis all posted game scores of 87 last week.
Read on to find out what they did to record these totals and what they had to say about their performances.
Stat guru Bill James devised a metric called “game score,” a number arrived at by adding or subtracting points based on in-game performance. It does not take into account prospect status or level, making it simple to compare outings across different leagues, affiliations and classes.
Here’s how to calculate a pitcher’s game score:
- Start with 50 points
- Add one point for each out recorded
- Add two points for each inning completed after the fourth
- Add one point for each strikeout
- Subtract two points for each hit allowed
- Subtract four points for each earned run allowed
- Subtract two points for each unearned run allowed
- Subtract one point for each walk.
Here’s a look at the top five pitching performances from May 12–18
Game Scores Week 6
NameTeamIPHRERBBSOGAME SCOREParker BridwellFrederick8.11002887Kyle HendricksIowa830001187Max GarnerGreensboro81000787Jake JunisLexington80001687Hunter HarveyDelmarva710011084
Parker Bridwell, 87
The evidence of what Parker Bridwell and his Frederick teammates nearly accomplished on May 13 is in the left-field wall at Harry Grove Stadium. There, a crack in the plywood fence the size of Michael Burgess tells the story.
That tale is one of a pitcher and his defense flirting with history but narrowly missing out.
On Tuesday night, Bridwell — for the second time in the past year — took a no-hitter into the ninth inning, this time backed by some highlight-reel defensive plays. Potomac scratched a hit off him in the final frame, but that was all it got as Class A Advanced Frederick recorded a 7–0 Carolina League whitewash.
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Rain delayed Kyle Hendricks’ start for more than an hour on May 15, but opposing hitters could be forgiven for wishing it’d been washed out.
“It’s tough sometimes to stay focused when you’re delayed, but we knew were going to play,” Hendricks told MiLB.com’s Josh Jackson. “Once they told us a start time, I just stayed in the clubhouse and tried to relax with the rest of the guys.”
The Cubs’ №15 prospect matched a career high with 11 strikeouts while allowing three hits over eight innings in Triple-A Iowa’s 2–0 win over Round Rock. Hendricks improved to 4–3 with a 3.06 ERA in the Pacific Coast League.
He did not walk a batter, had only one three-ball count and threw 71 of 100 pitches for strikes. Eighteen of the 27 batters he faced got a first-pitch strike.
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When a debilitating illness struck right-hander Max Garner in the summer of 2009, baseball was the furthest thing from his mind. Now with his health in check and the game in perspective, the Marlins pitching prospect can focus on what he enjoys the most.
Garner (3–3) allowed one hit and struck out seven batters over eight innings as the Class A Greensboro Grasshoppers two-hit the host Augusta GreenJackets, 2–0, at Lake Olmstead Stadium on May 18.
“I was trying to be aggressive and I was moving my fastball,” the right-hander told MiLB.com’s Ashley Marshall. “It was just about as comfortable as I’ve been on the mound. Just one of those days where everything I threw was working, even if I missed my spots a little bit.
“The early contact has helped a lot and I had no walks. 3–1 or 3–2, I just stayed aggressive instead of trying to trick them with a changeup or curveball. Walks are killer. When you don’t walk people, it will cut the pitch count down.”
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Not many teams — not many pitchers, to be specific — have been able to figure out the Hagerstown Suns this season. Entering May 18, the Nationals’ Class A affiliate boasted a .756 winning percentage that was easily the best in affiliated baseball.
And yet, Jake Junis seems to have the inside track on the Minor Leagues’ hottest team.
The Royals prospect pitched eight hitless innings, striking out six and walking one, in Lexington’s 1–0 blanking of Hagerstown at Whitaker Bank Ballpark. The no-hit bid ended with one out in the ninth when Isaac Ballou doubled off reliever Matt Alvarez.
In two starts against the Suns, Junis is 2–0 with a 2.57 ERA and 14 strikeouts over 14 innings.
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Hunter Harvey leads the South Atlantic League with 45 strikeouts. The Orioles’ №4 prospect hasn’t allow an earned run in five of his seven starts this season and has held his Class A foes to a .147 average. But the only numbers that matter to him are the ones in his team’s record.
After not earning a win since his first start of 2014, Harvey tossed seven one-hit innings and struck out a career-high 10 as Delmarva shut out Lakewood, 3–0, on May 12.
“I felt pretty good. I had good command tonight, I was working in and out of the zone,” he told MiLB.com’s Kelsie Heneghan. “They really helped me out early in the count, swinging early. They got some groundouts and some popouts early.
“I didn’t want to give up any runs because we were tied most of the game, and then we took the lead, so I just wanted to keep our lead.”
Here are the top MiLB game scores so far from the 2014 season. For the first time, the top five is unchanged from the previous week.
2014’s Top MiLB Game Scores
NameTeamIPHRERBBSOGAME SCOREWEEKMike MontgomeryDurham8.100019913Josh TomlinColumbus9300010914Matt BoydDunedin8200012903Greg PeaveyBinghamton920006895Adam PlutkoLake County8300013895
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