Arroyo’s Disaster

If there’s been a theme to some of my recent posts, it’s that baseball is fairly unpredictable. From Jim Edmonds‘ revival in Chicago, Russ Branyan doing a pretty good Ruth impression after getting called up from Triple-A, and Jose Guillen drawing two walks the day after I write about his 37 game walk-free streak, the game does a good job of reminding us that on any given day, you just don’t know what’s going to happen.

But, as much as we don’t know, there are some things that we do know. One of those things that we can all agree on is that the 2008 Toronto Blue Jays can’t hit. Their offense is sadder than a Lifetime Original Movie marathon. They’re slugging .376 as a team, with Matt Stairs leading the team in home runs… with eight. At the end of June. Their supposed star hitters, Vernon Wells and Alex Rios, are producing more like fourth outfielders. They average 4.0 runs per game and the hitters undermine the great work done by their teammates on the pitching staff.

So, knowing that the Jays are a pitiful offensive club, I have to ask – Bronson Arroyo, how on earth did you manage to give up 10 runs to that club while getting just three people out last night. 12 of the 15 batters you faced reach base. The amount of outs you recorded was equal to the amount of home runs you gave up. Your game score was -9. Negative Nine!

This was easily the worst pitching performance we’ve seen so far in 2008. In fact, in the last 50 years, only 13 starting pitchers have managed to record three outs or less and post a negative game score. Arroyo’s -9 will rank behind only Jason Jennings‘ performance last year when he allowed 11 runs in 2/3 of an inning.

Giving up double digit runs while not recording an out past the first inning against the worst offense in baseball? That’s a pretty special performance, but in all the wrong ways. Congratulations Bronson, we’ll remember this game for years to come, even if you don’t want us to.