MiLB Game Scores from Week 2
By MiLB.com
By Ashley Marshall/ MiLB.com
Easter Sunday represented the end of the second full week of the Minor League baseball season. For those keeping track, there are 20 more Sundays still left in the season, providing plenty of opportunities for pitchers to grab the headlines with low hit totals and high strikeout numbers.
Stat guru Bill James devised a metric called “game score,” a number arrived at by adding or subtracting points based on in-game performance. It does not take into account prospect status or level, making it simple to compare outings across different leagues, affiliations and classes.
Here’s how to calculate a pitcher’s game score:
- Start with 50 points
- Add one point for each out recorded
- Add two points for each inning completed after the fourth
- Add one point for each strikeout
- Subtract two points for each hit allowed
- Subtract four points for each earned run allowed
- Subtract two points for each unearned run allowed
- Subtract one point for each walk.
Here’s a look at the top five pitching performances from April 14–20.
NameTeamIPHRERBBSOGAME SCOREKendall GravemanLansing8 1/31001787Buck FarmerWest Michigan720011183Brian FlynnNew Orleans71001781Nate KarnsDurham72001981Matt HarrisonFrisco83001580
Kendall Graveman, 87
Kendall Graveman came two outs away from his first career no-hitter on April 18.
“You get so close and you almost taste it and you want to have it, but sometimes it doesn’t happen and then you have to move on,” Graveman (1–0) told MiLB.com colleague Kelsie Heneghan.
The Blue Jays prospect worked efficiently, forcing 13 ground outs on approximately 92 pitches.
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After Buck Farmer gave up a hit to the first batter he faced Friday night, he kept his opponents quiet. Very, very quiet.
In his deepest pro start, the Tigers prospect didn’t allow another hit until his final inning — the seventh — and recorded a career-high 11 strikeouts in Class A West Michigan’s 5–2 victory at Cedar Rapids on April 18.
“My off-speed stuff was definitely working,” Farmer told MiLB.com’s Josh Jackson. “I was using my fastball to get ahead and it also allowed me to come back in counts, and then I could throw what I wanted. I was kind of leaning on my slider to their righties, and they only had a couple lefties.”
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After Brian Flynn settled into his start on Friday night, there was no unsettling him.
The Marlins’ №7 prospect allowed a two-out hit and a walk in the first inning but was otherwise perfect for seven frames. He struck out seven to pick up his first win of the season as Triple-A New Orleans edged Iowa, 1–0, on April 18.
“Everything mechanically was clicking. I was getting the ball downhill,” Flynn told Jackson. “I was just throwing a lot of strikes, really getting ahead of a lot of guys. And when I wasn’t, I had the confidence to get back into the zone when I needed to. Not being behind in counts really helped a lot.”
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Nathan Karns has his early-season adjustment period out of the way and the International League is beginning to take notice.
Karns turned in seven stellar innings, striking out nine while allowing two hits and a walk April 18 as Triple-A Durham blanked Norfolk, 3–0, at Harbor Park.
“After the first two [starts], I was trying to balance some adjustments I made in Spring Training,” Karns told MiLB.com’s Tyler Maun. “When you get in those games, your adrenaline’s going. Every little adjustment’s a large adjustment when you’re that jacked up. For me, it was kind of just getting that new season feel out of the way and just get back in the rhythm of how the game goes and slow everything down.”
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Making his third rehab start, Matt Harrison scattered three hits and a walk while striking out five batters over eight scoreless innings as the Frisco RoughRiders defeated the Corpus Christi Hooks, 6–0, on April 19.
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Graveman’s game score edges Week 1 leader Christian Binford (83) for the 2014 season lead. However, it still trails 2013 leader Luis Cruz by nine points. Cruz fanned 14 batters in a two-hit shutout for Corpus Christi last Aug. 26.
