Was Corey Kluber’s first start as a Yankee a good one?
If you’re a glass half full person, you could say he threw 74 pitches over four innings, allowed one earned run, his arm doesn’t hurt, and the Yankees won. All good, right?
But if we’re being realistic, he wasn’t very good.
Allowing eight base runners – five hits, three walks – over four innings is not good. Frankly, it’s pretty bad. We can’t say he ran into some poor luck either, as five of the ten balls Toronto put in play were smoked at 96 mph or better, another one was hit 91 mph. Allowing 18 base runners, two homeruns and ten frozen ropes per nine innings is going to get your team an “L” far more often than not.
Yes, it’s April 4th. Yes, it’s only one start and one game – don’t misunderstand, I’m not hitting the panic button. But let’s not gloss over the realities.
Conversely, did you see Jonathan Loaisiga yesterday?!?
Over two innings, he threw 12 fastballs and the slowest was a sinker at 95.5 mph. He allowed only three balls to be put into play, and two of them were in the 60s in exit velocity – the third, a fly out, only hit 87 mph. Final line: Two innings, three kays, zero hits, zero walks, and a metric ton of gas.
Now that was fun to watch.
Did I miss something? Let me know.
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