Boston Red Sox: Rick Porcello Matches Pedro Martinez
On Saturday night, Boston Red Sox starter Rick Porcello notched his 22nd win of 2016. In doing so, he became the first Boston starter to reach that mark since Pedro Martinez in 1999.
It’s safe to say that Boston Red Sox starter Rick Porcello’s 2016 campaign is a lot different than his 2015 season. Last season, he struggled on the mound and finished with a 9-15 record and a very bloated 4.92 ERA.
This season, Porcello is in the discussion for the American League Cy Young and with his 22nd win of the season on Saturday night against the Tampa Bay Rays, it seems more and more likely that Porcello could actually win the award. Forget the fact that he’s been helped out by a strong offense in a lot of those wins—including Saturday’s 6-4 victory in Tropicana—Porcello’s 22 wins are a large reason why the Red Sox have made the playoffs for the first time since 2013 and are about to clinch the American League East division title.
On Saturday night, Porcello became the 14th American League pitcher since 1976 to notch at least 22 wins in a season. The last guy to do it was Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers who won 24 games in 2011 and collected both the American League Cy Young and the American League Most Valuable Player award. Porcello probably won’t accomplish the same feat as Verlander, but the Cy Young is a possibility.
More from Call to the Pen
- Philadelphia Phillies, ready for a stretch run, bomb St. Louis Cardinals
- Philadelphia Phillies: The 4 players on the franchise’s Mount Rushmore
- Boston Red Sox fans should be upset over Mookie Betts’ comment
- Analyzing the Boston Red Sox trade for Dave Henderson and Spike Owen
- 2023 MLB postseason likely to have a strange look without Yankees, Red Sox, Cardinals
So how is he doing this? He’s not doing it with particularly hard stuff; his fastball only averages around 92 mph. The key for Porcello is mixing his pitches. He throws a four seam fastball, a sinker, a change, a slider, a curveball and a cutter. He has a full arsenal of pitches and that more than makes up for the lack of velocity.
He’s striking out batters at a 20.9 percent clip while walking them only 3.5 percent of the time. Batters are only hitting .223 off Porcello overall and he generates a lot of swings on his four seamer, cutter, slider and change up.
Another key to Porcello’s performance this season is how he mixes all of his pitches. He relies heavily on his sinker which averages around 90 mph and generates a lot of swings. Unfortunately for Porcello, it also has produced the highest number of home runs this season—10. Hitters are batting .273 off Porcello’s slider. His best pitch is actually his four seamer. It has generated 66 strike outs compared to 51 off the sinker and he’s only given up two home runs off the sinker. But it’s clear Porcello favors the sinker because he’s thrown it nearly 700 more times than his four seamer.
Porcello also joined Pedro Martinez atop the Boston Red Sox pitching leaderboard after his victory on Saturday night. Porcello and Martinez are now the two only Red Sox pitchers to reach the 22-win plateau. Martinez won 23 games in his masterful Cy Young winning 1999 season. He finished with a 2.07 ERA and a career-high 313 strike outs.
Next: Jose Fernandez dies in tragic boating accident
Porcello’s 2016 numbers are a bit more inflated than Martinez’s were in 1999. His ERA is currently 3.11 and he has 183 strike outs, but with the way the rest of the American League is pitching, he has a pretty good chance of snagging the Cy Young when the awards are given out in November.