New ace


Masahiro Tanaka has lived up to the billing that he got coming over from Japan, with at least seven strikeouts in all five of his starts so far, all of which have been quality starts, with at least six innings pitched and three or fewer earned runs allowed. No other pitcher has had a five-game streak of quality starts with seven or more strikeouts this season, and only four pitchers did it all of last season: Chris Sale, Andrew Cashner, Cliff Lee, and Ubaldo Jimenez.

The last pitcher to start a season with a streak like Tanaka’s was Tim Lincecum, who had seven quality starts with seven or more strikeouts to begin 2010. Tanaka’s streak is the longest to open a major league career in the past 100 years, surpassing Jose DeLeon in 1983 and Orlando Hernandez in 1998, both at three such starts.

Like Hernandez, Tanaka came to the major leagues already as an experienced hand — he’s obviously not your typical rookie. So, try this on for size: in his five starts so far, Tanaka has 46 strikeouts and six walks. That K/BB ratio of 7.67, if it holds over the course of the season, would be the highest for a starting pitcher age 25 or younger in American League history. Ben Sheets had an 8.25 K/BB ratio, with 264 strikeouts and 32 walks, in his age 25 season with the 2004 Milwaukee Brewers, while the record in the Junior Circuit for young pitchers belongs to Walter Johnson, who was 36-7 with a 1.14 ERA, 243 strikeouts, and 38 walks (6.39 K/BB) for the 1913 Washington Senators.


One ping only


The Atlanta Braves have had three 1-0 victories and two 1-0 losses — five games out of 27 in which only one run was scored. The Braves had three 1-0 victories over the past two seasons combined, while the pair of 1-0 losses represents the most such defeats for Atlanta since 2001.

Last year, the Braves were involved in a total of three 1-0 games. They last had five such games in a full season in 2011, going 4-1, while the last time Atlanta was involved in more than five 1-0 games was 1993, when the Braves went 3-3 in games featuring only one run.

Alex Wood was the losing pitcher in both of the Braves’ 1-0 defeats so far, which explains how he is 2-4 despite a 2.93 ERA. Wood is the first pitcher to have two games in a season in which he pitched at least eight innings, gave up only one run, and lost, since Dave Bush of the Toronto Blue Jays in 2005. No starters had done it at all since Jordan Zimmerman went eight innings for the Washington Nationals in a 1-0 loss to the Angels in 2011.


False starts


The Cleveland Indians have had 10 games in which their starting pitcher failed to get through five innings, only two fewer such performances than the Detroit Tigers had all of last season. The most common Tribe starter to go short has been Danny Salazar, with three starts of fewer than five innings. That includes April 10 against the White Sox, when Salazar had 10 strikeouts, but gave up five runs on six hits and two walks in 3.2 innings.

Salazar and Michael Wacha (4 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 5 BB, 10 K on April 23 at New York) have matched last season’s total number of starting pitchers to record double-digit strikeouts but not make it through five innings, as Felix Hernandez did it in September and Alex Cobb did it in May. This season and last season are the only seasons in the past century to have multiple starters strike out at least 10 hitters but not pitch five innings.


Goins, Goins, gone


The Toronto Blue Jays have sent second baseman Ryan Goins back to the minor leagues, so his season numbers are stuck on a .150 batting average, one home run, and one RBI in 66 plate appearances. Goins’ batting average is 61 points higher thanks to four more hits, but his HR, RBI, and PA totals are identical to last year’s stats for Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez.

Hitting like a pitcher will get you sent down to the farm, for sure, but what’s striking about Goins is that if his major league homer and RBI totals stay the same, he can become the first position player with as many plate appearances as he has to have equal numbers in those two Triple Crown categories since Greg Norton had two homers and two RBI in 99 trips to the plate for the 2004 Detroit Tigers.


Mr. Contact


Atlanta Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons is the best defensive player in the game, and it turns out that his love of glove extends to making opposing fielders work. In 98 plate appearances, Simmons has three home runs, three walks, and three strikeouts — the categories known, of course, as the Three True Outcomes because on those plays, defenders have no work to do. Simmons’ rate of 9.18% of his plate appearances ending with one of the Three True Outcomes is by far the lowest in the majors among players with 50 or more plate appearances, as Toronto Blue Jays catcher Dioner Navarro is next on the list at 13.86%.

At the other end of the spectrum are Detroit Tigers catcher Alex Avila (0 HR, 9 BB, 23 K in 60 PA) and San Francisco Giants second baseman Brandon Hicks (5 HR, 11 BB, 24 K in 75 PA), each at 53.33%. Last year, among players with at least 400 plate appearances, the hitters at either end of the spectrum were Placido Polanco (1 HR, 23 BB, 31 K in 416 PA) at 13.22% and Chris Carter (29 HR, 70 BB, 212 K in 585 PA) at 53.16%.