SPECULATOR: It was just ONE bad day
May 31 2023
It's one of the worst feelings in our game.
You pull out your phone to check on your starting pitcher for the day, and bam: the other team has seven-plus runs by the third inning. Any errors? Nope, all runs are earned. Assuming you haven't thrown your phone yet, you check your league's live standings and—at this juncture of the season—you've dropped five points. It stings, and we've all been there.
And if it seems like blowups have been popping up more frequently this season, they (kind of) have been. Here are the number of starts in April and May, by season since 2013, resulting in 7+ or 8+ earned runs:
STARTS WITH
Year 7+ ER 8+ ER
==== ===== =====
2013 76 29
2014 55 18
2015 72 29
2016 65 19
2017 ...
Almost!
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