Thursday, May 15

I'm confused

I'm here at work during lunchtime with an MLB GameCast window open, and I can't for the life of me figure out what it means. At the top, in big letters, it says "Cleveland 3, Oakland 1." What the heck?

OK, the "3" by Cleveland's name I understand - it means that the Indians have scored three runs to this point in the game. The vertical line next to Oakland, however, I don't get. I've been watching Cleveland Indians baseball for six days now, and ther is ALWAYS an oval, kind of like: "0" next to the opponent's name. I want to know how Oakland got that stick and I want to know now.

Further, non-absurd investigation reveals that the run allowed was unearned, meaning Indians starters can still (as of 1:19 PM) claim a lengthy streak of not allowing any earned runs. What allowed the run to score was a throwing error by pitcher Aaron Laffey. I've always had mixed feelings about how that should count in the statistics: sure, runs that score only with the benefit of errors are unearned, I get that, but you're the pitcher. By any reasonable definition, if you made the error, you earned the run, no? This goes double for throwing errors - anything arm-related should definitely count against ERA.

1 comment:

Nick said...

I've had this debate about earned runs (errors on pitchers) many times, including today. I'm glad we agree; such runs clearly should be charged to the hurler.