- At first glance, Jacob deGrom and Chris Sale don’t have a whole lot in common.
One plays for the American League’s best team, while the other is the unquestioned ace on one of the National League’s worst teams. One is left-handed and the other is right-handed. One hasn’t necessarily had a problem securing wins (Sale has 12), while the other has had to jump through hoops to just have a .500 record (deGrom is currently 7-7).
However, the one thing both Sale and deGrom have in common — especially when looking at the current season — is run prevention. Each of these hurlers lead their respective league in ERA heading into Thursday’s games. DeGrom is at the very top of the leaderboard with a 1.81 ERA, while Sale is right behind him at 1.97.
So that got me wondering how often the ERA leader in each league (for starting pitchers, of course) finished a single year with a mark below 2.00. As you can guess from the title of this article, it’s been a while.
This has happened exactly six times since 1940, and it hasn’t occurred since the 1972 campaign. Here’s a quick look at those instances, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.
Well, that’d a pretty cool list to join, right? What’s also interesting about these two hurlers potentially finishing 2018 with an ERA below 2.00 is the manner in which they’ve gotten to this point.
In deGrom’s case, he’s been under that benchmark most of the year. He only lasted four innings on May 2nd against the Atlanta Braves, but he didn’t allow a run, leading to his season-long ERA dip down to 1.87. That’s actually the last time it’s been that high, going as low as 1.49 after allowing one run on seven hits, two walks, and 13 strikeouts in seven innings against the Chicago Cubs on June 2nd.
With regard to Sale, though, he’s used a ridiculously dominant stretch to join his fellow hurler in this exclusive club. After allowing four runs in six innings to the Houston Astros on June 1st, the southpaw’s ERA stood at a season-high 3.00. He’s managed to lower it in each of the following 10 starts that followed, and his last seven starts in particular really stand out.
Sale has gone 6-0 over this stretch (nearly matching deGrom’s season-long win total) off the strength of a 0.20 ERA (!!!), six walks and 79 strikeouts in 44 innings of work. Phew.
With Trevor Bauer recently hitting the disabled list, Sale’s path to winning his first Cy Young award has become a bit easier. The road will be rougher for deGrom, though, especially since Max Scherzer is close to him in ERA (2.19) and fWAR (5.6) with twice as many wins (15).
About Matt Musico
Matt Musico currently manages Chin Music Baseball and contributes to The Sports Daily. His past work has been featured at numberFire, Yahoo! Sports and Bleacher Report. He’s also written a book about how to become a sports blogger. You can sign up for his email newsletter here.
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