How is he doing it?

In the first game of the double header, Fausto Carmona pitched a complete game shutout. He did it while again walking more hitters (4) than he struck out (3); something he has done in 6 of his 8 starts on the season. In lowering his season ERA to 2.40 (4th in the AL) he now has 35 walks with only 18 strike outs. How is he doing it? He has given up only one homerun on the season (16 last year), induced 15 double plays (36 last year), and 83.1% of the batters that have reached base have not scored (77.6% last year), those are of course unsustainable. There are some things working in his favor, his ground ball percentage thus far (66.5%) is consistent with last season (64.3%) and his walks per game are at twice the levels of his career. I just don’t think things are going to end well for Carmona if the continues to pitch this way.

In game two, Cliff Lee again harkened back to the deadball with nine innings of no run baseball; lowering his ERA to a league leading 0.67. In the battle of struggling offenses, Shawn Marcum pitched wonderfully as well. It took the continued struggles of Rafael Betancourt to give the Blue Jays the victory in ten. Betancourt gave up three runs in the tenth to spoil Lee’s night (though the offense did little to help Lee as well).

Two games, eighteen innings, zero runs by the Indians starting pitching. Not bad. Indians starters now have the best ERA in baseball at 3.16.