MiLB Game Scores from Week 9
By MiLB.com
By Ashley Marshall/ MiLB.com
Week 9 in the Minors saw a Traveler go the distance, a streaking Sea Dog turn in his best start of the season and a National strike out 14 batters. Were any of the performances good enough to crack the top 5 game scores of the season?
Read on to find out.
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 June 2–8:
MiLB Game Scores from Week 9
NameTeamIPHRERHRBBSOGAME SCOREDrew RucinskiArkansas950000683Henry OwensPortland820002682Jose UrenaJacksonville830001782John SimmsPotomac7211011482Charlie LeesmanCharlotte830002781
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Drew Rucinski was on the other end of a budding no-hitter June 7, but by the final out, he was the one who’d stolen the show.
Rucinski turned in the Texas League’s first nine-inning complete game of the season, scattering five hits and striking out six as Double-A Arkansas blanked Northwest Arkansas, 3–0, at Dickey-Stephens Park.
While the Travelers right-hander was putting together the early pieces of his first career complete game, it was Naturals starter and №12 Royals prospect Sam Selman who was the early headliner.
Although he worked with traffic due to walks and an error, Selman didn’t surrender a hit through five innings. The left-hander countered three walks with three strikeouts and got some help from his defense as right fielder Jorge Bonifacio cut down Anderson De La Rosa at the plate to end the second.
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There comes a point when superlatives just don’t seem to be enough.
Just two months and a dozen starts into the season, what’s left to say about top Boston prospect Henry Owens? He’s proven almost unhittable and he’s overmatching his opponents almost every time he toes the rubber lately.
June 4 was no different, and it nearly left his coaches and teammates lost for words too.
Owens (7–3) allowed two hits and issued two walks while striking out six batters over a season-high eight scoreless innings in the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs’ 5–1 win over the visiting Erie SeaWolves.
“Impressive,” pitching coach Bob Kipper told me. “What more can you say about eight scoreless innings of two-hit ball? He dominated from start to finish, and he responded to any challenge the game threw at him, whether it was a hit or a walk or a 3–0 count with a runner in scoring position.”
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Midway through his June 5 outing, Jacksonville starter Jose Urena picked up the scent of a shutout, and he might have accomplished the feat if the Marlins didn’t value his future so much.
Following his third hit allowed, Miami’s №8 prospect retired the next 11 Tennessee hitters. He ended the eighth at a season-high 104 pitches and didn’t get a chance to pitch the ninth as the Suns beat the Smokies, 6–0, at The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.
“I think he was trying to sniff a complete game there,” Suns skipper Andy Barkett told MiLB.com’s Mark Emery. “He ran his pitch count up a little bit. I think he was really wanting that complete-game shutout. He just hit another gear, it seemed like, in the second half of the game. … He was in complete control.”
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John Simms finally has a “W” to his name, and he earned it in style.
Making his eighth start for Class A Advanced Potomac on June 7, the Nationals prospect rang up a career-high 14 strikeouts in a 6–1 win over visiting Wilmington. In his longest professional outing yet, he allowed one run on two hits and a walk over seven dominant innings.
“That wasn’t just my first win at Class A Advanced, that was my first professional win,” Simms told Emery. “So it’s been kind of a running joke now. It’s been interesting, to say the least, just trying to get over that hump.”
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Charlie Leesman doesn’t view himself as a strikeout pitcher and is pleasantly surprised when he gets opposing hitters rung up. Especially when those K’s lead him to another win.
Leesman fanned seven while allowing just three hits over eight scoreless innings, and Triple-A Charlotte held on late to beat Rochester, 7–6, at BB&T Ballpark on June 5. He matched a career-long outing in the process.
“From the first inning on, I felt pretty good with all my pitches, and that’s been a struggle for me,” Leesman (2–5) told MiLB.com’s Tyler Maun. “Usually I have one pitch or two pitches, but not all three. It felt like the changeup was the missing link. To be able to throw that early in the game and be able to get hitters seeing that pitch early, it set up everything else later.”
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Here are the top MiLB game scores so far from the 2014 season — no changes from last week.
2014′s Top MiLB Game Scores
NameTeamIPHRERBBSOGame ScoreWeekMike MontgomeryDurham8.100019913Josh TomlinColumbus9300010914Matt BoydDunedin8200012903Tim CooneyMemphis910027908Greg PeaveyBinghamton920006895
