Wade LeBlanc pitched well again in Tuesday night’s victory over the Pirates. He’s done that a lot this year.
At the ripe old age of 25, LeBlanc now has roughly a full season’s worth of work under his belt. To this point, he compares well with a more highly touted youngster who happens to pitch in the same division:
Player Age GS IP ERA ERA+ H/9 HR/9 BB/9 K/9 Wade LeBlanc 25 34 190.2 4.06 91 9.13 1.37 3.69 6.28 Ian Kennedy 25 35 198.2 4.94 91 8.43 1.31 4.12 7.25
LeBlanc gets to pitch half his games at Petco Park, which makes his surface numbers look much better (2.58 ERA at home vs 5.61 on the road). Kennedy has allowed fewer hits and struck out more batters, and truth be told, he’s probably the superior pitcher… but it’s closer than you might have expected.
Boy, what a nice win last night! I know it was just the Pirates, but those are the sorts of teams you’re supposed to beat, have to beat, to be a playoff team. LeBlanc pitched well, Ludwick got on track and the team scratched out an insurance run late. Nice baseball! Bonus points for picking up a game on the Giants (Go Cubbies!).
One thing I hate to see with LeBlanc is the use of overall numbers. His 2008 performance was lousy, and he got bombed in his firt two starts last year, before getting sent down. He was told that he had to establish the fastball and use both sides of the plate to get another chance, and he did just that.
When he came back up in August, he was outstanding, and he continued that in spring training, showing off a cutter to go with his regular FB. You could make the case that he’s a different pitcher since getting sent down last year, and the earlier numbers are masking the improvement.
You mentioned his lack of run support, so I looked it up. In 21 starts, he’s given up 48 runs, and the team scored 43 while he was in the game. That includes his second and third starts when the team gave him 5 and 9 runs, respectively. In seven of his 21 starts, the team scored no runs while he was in the game, three other times only one run, and four times only two runs.
What’s really astounding: when he gave up 0 runs, he’s 3-0. In six starts of one run ball, he’s 2-1 with 3 no-decisions. In four starts where he gave up 2 runs, he’s 0-2 with 2 no-decisions. That’s 13 starts allowing 14 total runs, and he’s only 5-3 with five no-decisions. He should sue for non-support.