Five games, five good starts, five wins. Marks really shined this week. He took the ball three times during the last seven games, in Manhattan last Friday, vs. Missouri State on Wednesday, and again vs. CSU on Sunday. He pitched well on all days and now will have a chance to even his record at 6-6 against Nebraska.
It would be wrong of me to not highlight Marks masterpiece last Friday in Manhattan. Andy went seven scoreless innings only giving up one hit. The Wildcat rally to win the game in the 8th has to be considered the biggest blow KU has taken all year. This was the most dominating performance by any starting pitcher during the three years I have been following the team. Marks and Marciel have improved enormously during this season. A Czyz, Marks, Marciel weekend rotation next year will be damn satisfactory.
Nick Czyz also looked particularly effective this week after having a nightmare start vs. K-State last Saturday. In five innings he only gave up one hit and one walk while inducing seven ground outs vs. Chicago State. Hopefully this success will carry into his start this weekend.
I cleaned up this chart quite a bit this week. I had computed the totals by hand and had made several mistakes. I think this information is now accurate.
|
||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | W-L | ERA | Starts | Innings as Starter |
Quality starts vs. RPI-100 |
Hits/9 | BB/9 | K/9 | HR/9 | |
| Marks | 5-6 | 5.38 | 14 | 82 | 1 | 8.7 | 3.7 | 9.1 | 1.5 | |
| Czyz | 4-7 | 4.16 | 13 | 67 | 3 | 9.5 | 3.8 | 8.1 | 0.3 | |
| Ashwood | 4-4 | 5.71 | 12 | 58.3 | 1 | 8.6 | 4.8 | 7.1 | 0.8 | |
| Marciel | 5-2 | 4.03 | 9 | 38 | 10.4 | 2.8 | 6.9 | 0.7 | ||
| Esquibel | 2-2 | 6.00 | 5 | 18 | 9.0 | 3.5 | 7.5 | 0.5 | ||
| Marcin | 0-0 | 6.67 | 2 | 2.7 | 6.7 | 13.3 | 10 | 0.0 | ||
| Team | 20-21 | 5.01 | 55 | 266 | 5 | 9.1 | 3.9 | 8.0 | 0.8 | |
Smyth inherited a 1-0 8th inning lead last Friday in Manhattan and allowed the Wildcats to comeback and win the game. Outside of this one slide the bullpen generally performed well in the next six games. KU relief pitchers were called upon to pitch 8.1 innings the following day after Price pulled Czyz after only two-thirds of an inning. During these innings the pen hands only gave up three additional runs. Garcia in particular stepped up.
Esquibel had a shaky long relief appearance vs. Missouri State, giving up two home runs. Smyth recorded his seventh save to close out that important non-conference game. Quite a few relievers saw work over the four game CSU weekend and, with the exception of Thomas Marcin, looked good. Marcin was wild in his inning of work and was lucky to only give up one run. He has as good stuff as anyone on the staff but he needs to put a lot of work into his mechanics to develop a consistant release point. (Listen to me, like I know what I am talking about.)
|
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pitcher | ERA | Appearances last 7 games |
Relief Points |
Season Appearances |
Relief Points |
| Smyth | 1.70 | 3 | 2 | 30 | 141 |
| Garcia | 4.30 | 2 | 26 | 20 | 64 |
| Marciel | 3.91 | 9 | 38 | ||
| Ellenbecker | 0.00 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 30 |
| Lane | 3.94 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 13 |
| Marcin | 3.66 | 1 | -4 | 11 | 8 |
| Marks | 5.29 | 1 | 8 | ||
| Hayakawa | 5.85 | 1 | 12 | 14 | 6 |
| Ashwood | 5.57 | 1 | 8 | 3 | 0 |
| Esquibel | 5.11 | 2 | -12 | 18 | -45 |
| Team | 4.40 | 12 | 40 | 122 | 251 |