Detroit Tigers rookie right-hander Michael Fulmer is working on a 22.1 inning scoreless streak, which he will take into the Bronx to face a Yankee squad that has won five of six and scored 34 runs in that span.
Fulmer was the prospect that made the Yoenis Cespedes trade to the New York Mets possible at last year’s trade deadline. He learned of the deal while throwing a bullpen with the Binghampton Mets and was called inside, where he saw his face next to Cespedes’ on MLB Network.
The trade worked out quite well for the Mets last year, but right now the Tigers have to be quite pleased with the deal themselves.
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After his first four starts, the 23 year-old was 2-1 with a 6.52 ERA and plenty of run support. In his five starts since, he has allowed one run, a solo homer to Evan Longoria on May 21, and struck out 27 in 28.1 innings pitched. In those last four starts he has lowered his ERA nearly four runs, which now sits at 2.82 heading into Sunday’s matchup in the Bronx.
Of course the scoreless streak is nice, but what makes it really impressive is that he has be utterly dominant at the same time. He has allowed just eight hits in his last four starts, including a three-hitter and a back-to-back two hitters in his last three. No Tiger pitcher had ever gone three straight starts of at least six scoreless innings while allowing three or fewer hits, at least as far back as 1913 when the records were started. Not even Justin Verlander, who won both the Cy Young and MVP awards in 2011 has accomplished this feat.
Fulmer was pulled early in Detroit’s 11-0 win over Toronto on Monday after tossing six innings and totaling just 88 pitches. If he had been left in for a seventh inning, averaging 15 pitches per inning, he would have finished somewhere in the low hundreds. He would have also had the chance to join Clayton Kershaw in 2015 and Pedro Martinez in 2002 as the only pitchers to pitch seven scoreless with three hits or fewer allowed in three straight games since 2000.
According to Brooks Baseball, each of Fulmer’s four offerings (fastball at 96, slider at 89, sinker at 96 and a change at 87) either generate more whiffs per swing (fastball, slider change) or induces more ground balls (fastball, sinker) than most pitcher’s offerings.
Also on Brooks Baseball you can see that he has been varying his pitches more in the last four starts than he was in his first four, and the results speak for themselves.
In his first four starts, pitch type percentages were high in certain counts facing certain hitters. For instance, left-handed hitters has a 50% chance of being started off with a sinker, and a 48% chance of seeing a sinker if the batter got ahead. In his last four starts, lefties have a 40% chance of seeing a fastball to start off an at-bat, and a 27% chance of seeing either a slider or a change-up.
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What this data tells us is that his stuff is good enough to get Major League hitters out (well, duh), especially if they can’t just sit on a certain pitch. Mixing up his arsenal has become a key to Fulmer’s recent success, and that success has a pretty good shot at continuing.