San Diego Padres ace Blake Snell is currently leading the league in ERA, with an impressive 2.61 mark.
He is also, oddly, leading MLB in walks, with 64.
Usually, when a pitcher has a low ERA, he doesn’t have many bases on balls, so it’s an odd development.
Still, what would baseball be without statistical oddities?
What Snell is doing is unique, according to OptaSTATS.
“Tonight Blake Snell lowered his MLB-leading ERA to 2.61 while also raising his MLB-high walk total to 64. Since ERA became an official stat in 1913, no pitcher has finished a season with both the lowest ERA (among qualifiers) and the most walks in MLB,” they tweeted.
Tonight Blake Snell lowered his MLB-leading ERA to 2.61 while also raising his MLB-high walk total to 64.
Since ERA became an official stat in 1913, no pitcher has finished a season with both the lowest ERA (among qualifiers) and the most walks in MLB. pic.twitter.com/6QDmPwjKgy
— OptaSTATS (@OptaSTATS) July 26, 2023
There you have it: Snell is a unique pitcher that will freely hand out walks on occasion, but is so difficult to hit that he rarely allows the most painful blow.
On Tuesday night, he allowed just one earned run in six innings against the Pittsburgh Pirates.
He struck out four hitters, but walked five.
Still, he managed to get himself out of jams and keep his team in the game.
In terms of walks per nine innings pitched, Snell’s 5.05 mark is his worst since he pitched 89 frames in 2016 (5.16).
However, his ERA is also the lowest since his Cy Young-winning campaign in 2018, when he was with the Tampa Bay Rays (1.89).
He walks a lot of hitters, but he also strikes out many more.
His 147 punchouts give him more than a fighting chance.
Snell is trying to lead the Padres back into the postseason, where they had a great run last year.
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