This is getting to be the same story repeated over and over. On May 26 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Jimenez went eight scoreless innings in a 7-3 win. He probably could have pitched through the ninth inning, but he had thrown 101 pitches already so better safe than sorry. Still, with Rafael Betancourt messing up the shutout maybe Jimenez should have stayed in.
After 10 starts, Jimenez has a sub-0.90 ERA, a 9-1 record, a WHIP below 1.000, and while it’s not a league leading stat, his 61 strikeouts are nothing to sneeze at.
So how good has he become? If anyone was going to get an earned run off him it’d be the home runs of Arizona, for starters. To answer the question though, who was the last person to earn nine wins in his first ten starts? Even Fernando Valenzuela couldn’t pull that off in his famed 1981 season (he was 8-1 in the first 10).
Bob Gibson never came close to nine quick wins either. Even in his great 1968 season he started 3-5, though with a sub-2.00 ERA. Is there anyone to compare him to?
The answer is yes, one person: Pedro Martinez. In 1999, he started 9-1 as well. The only difference was Jimenez had both half the ERA and half the strikeouts. Some will argue that Pedro got those stats in the premier offensive era of our time, but you can’t forget that Coors Field is the hitters park in Major League Baseball.
To show how dominant a pitcher is, one has to look at the little things, the pitch-by-pitch ticks, alongside the stats and the like. Looking at tonight’s game, he pitched to 29 batters and threw 61 of 101 pitches for strikes. But again, let’s look at some case studies.
In the top of the 8th, Jimenez walked Kelly Johnson with one out and brought up Gerardo Parra. After throwing all but one fastball that inning, he caught Parra swinging with a changeup. Sensing weakness, he again threw a changeup, and Parra grounded into an inning-ending double play.
In the top of the 4th, Stephen Drew led off. After a called strike on a fastball, Jimenez throws a curve and two changeups. Suddenly the count is three and one after Drew does not chase any. As he might expect another low pitch, Jimenez tries to throw the ball by Drew with a fastball quite square in the strike zone, as if he ignored it the count would only be full. Drew swung and the play ended as a ground out
So even when the outcome isn’t ideal, Jimenez is able to get the ball where he wants it to go, and as a result is getting the stats any pitcher would want this season. His fastball hit 99 in the eighth inning as well, so his arm is not getting tired late in games, which is great. That’s always something that is cause for concern, but if he can continue to keep his speed up late, then this dominance is going to continue.
It’s too early to hand the Cy Young over to him of course, but if he keeps playing like this, or even half as good (he’s never allowed over two runs), then he’s going to remain in contention throughout the season, and it will be a year hard to top.
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