Rangers’ ERA Is Falling Like Stock Prices; In Baseball, However, This Is A Good Thing

Posted on May 31st, 2009 8:04am by Evan Grant
Filed under Baseball, Texas Rangers
ERA Amendment
Rangers Best Monthly ERAs (Since 1994)
Month, Year ERA Record
May, 2005 3.511 18-7
May, 2009 3.513 20-8
May, 1996 3.64 18-9
August, 2007 3.76 14-14
April, 1997 3.80 14-10

If you are heading to Rangers Ballpark in Arlington today – or if you are listening in the garden or watching at home – you may want to keep this in mind: You may be witnessing the culmination of the greatest month in Rangers history. The team can tie the 1978 club, which won 21 in September (and one in October), for the most wins in a month. A win today, however, would make this the winningest full month (more than 25 games) in club history. It would push the monthly winning percentage to .724. A fan could get used to this kind of thing.

But more amazing is the way the Rangers are doing it: With quality pitching performance after quality     pitching performance. They enter today with a 3.511 ERA, technically two-thousandths of a point worst than the Ballpark era (since 1994) record for best monthly ERA. If Kevin Millwood and company can combine to allow three or fewer runs today against Oakland’s woeful hitters, it would drop to at least 3.496 or, for those rounding up, 3.50. Nevertheless, it would stand as the best ERA in a place where it was said ERAs went to die.

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7 Comments to “Rangers’ ERA Is Falling Like Stock Prices; In Baseball, However, This Is A Good Thing”
  • samags @ May 31st, 2009 at 8:44 am

    Pinch me!

  • scooper @ May 31st, 2009 at 8:55 am

    @evan: this is absolutely off-topic, but I just read something on a Braves’ blog that I found interesting – the fans are talking about trading for Cruz, Byrd or Jones! Have you heard anything? Do the Braves have anything left that we would take? Just curious!

  • Auditor @ May 31st, 2009 at 9:25 am

    No pressure Millwood, no pressure….

  • Evan Grant @ May 31st, 2009 at 9:32 am

    @scooper: The Rangers aren’t about to trade any of their outfield depth, especially with Hank Blalock’s lackluster performance and Chris Davis’ struggles. That’s fan talk. Not reality talk.

  • becca @ May 31st, 2009 at 9:36 am

    i’ll be at the ballpark today. can you convince the guys manning the jumbotron to let us know by the end of the game if we DID watch the best season of ranger’s pitching ever? thank you.

  • David C @ May 31st, 2009 at 12:13 pm

    Evan,

    Do you have any stats regarding how many walks the Rangers pitchers have this year as compared to the last few years? I know that there have been fewer errors made behind them, and my guess is that the walks are also down substantially.

  • Big Kev @ June 1st, 2009 at 8:33 am

    I think its interesting that 4 of the 5 top ERA months are in the spring. Just goes to show how hard it is to pitch in the ballpark in the summer heat and against the summer winds.