Living up to his billing?Living up to expectations?Hochevar pitched another nice game tonight. That makes four perfectly acceptable-to-very-good games out of his last five. You hate to get too excited (been there, done that), but imagine if he can remain consistent along with Greinke and Meche! Royals’ fans can’t exactly be compared to Cubs’ fans, but in our little world, hope springs eternal.

Here are Luke’s starts this season in chronological order. As I have discussed before, the simplest way to evaluate the game performance is by Game Score. He had a 71 tonight – his second highest of the season.

IP

PIT

H

ER

SO

BB

GmSc

2.0

48

7

8

1

2

9

3.1

70

3

2

1

3

42

6.1

92

7

4

1

2

42

6.2

91

4

2

3

2

59

9.0

80

3

1

3

1

79

4.0

95

9

6

3

2

19

7.0

93

3

2

4

1

66

7.0

102

2

0

2

4

71

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Obviously, he’s starting to get a little of the touch that he had in the minors before being called up. Of course, the competition is a lot tougher, but you get the idea.

Here are his stats for the first three games versus the last five.

 

 

W/L

BAA

ERA

SO/BB

First 3

0-2

.347

10.80

0.43

Last 5

3-1

.174

2.94

1.50

BAA- Batting Average Allowed

Clearly, this is an overwhelming improvement – although his SO/BB ratio isn’t exactly stellar. Nevertheless, a team (even the Royals) can win a lot of the time if they get consistent pitching like this.

And, just for the record, three of his last four starts are three of his top-5 performances as a Royal.

 

Date

IP

H

ER

SO

BB

GmSc

2009

9

3

1

3

1

79

2009

7

2

0

2

4

71

2008

6

4

0

5

3

67

2009

7

3

2

4

1

66

2008

7

5

1

4

0

66

2008

8

7

2

3

2

61

2008

6

3

2

6

4

60

2008

6

4

2

4

0

60

2009

6.2

4

2

3

2

59

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