Checking Out Nitro’s Best/Worst Start

Indianapolis Invaders ace starter Nate Nitro has had an “up and down” season through S1. Nitro was on fire early within his first five starts, picking up 3 wins and was one off the league lead in strikeouts as pointed out in a Hot/Cold article Written by Goliathus. Time has flown by since then and players have gone through various streaks of their own. Like every other player in the SBL, Nitro is one of them. We will evaluate Nitro’s best and worst start over his last 10 outings on the mound.

BEST - 5/12
https://atl-01.statsplus.net/simbaseball/reports/news/html/box_scores/game_box_81.html
Indianapolis 5, Dallas 3
Nitro’s Line: 8.1 IP, 6 K’s, 6 Hits Allowed, 1 BB, 3/3 Earned Runs, 64 Game Score

Nitro was on top of his stuff against the weak-hitting Dallas Drillers. Coming off a rough start against Toronto where Nitro gave up 5 runs in 5+ innings, he was looking to make a statement and the Drillers proved to be the perfect opportunity for him to do so. Nitro mowed through the Dallas lineup with an economical 89 pitches through the first eight innings and appeared on his way to recording his first complete game shutout in his young SBL career. Nitro came out for the ninth inning and appeared fatigued — he allowed two of the first three batters to reach scoring position before throwing a wild pitch to lose the shutout. He would proceed to serve up a homerun to Dallas right fielder Al E. Gator, which effectively ended his night. Invaders closer Serika Saturn would come in to get the final two outs and secure the victory.

WORST - 5/16
https://atl-01.statsplus.net/simbaseball/reports/news/html/box_scores/game_box_89.html
Charlotte 10, Indianapolis 4
Nitro’s Line: 2.2 IP, 4 K’s, 8 Hits Allowed, 5/5 Earned Runs, 22 Game Score

Nitro followed up his best start with what ended up being his worst start of the season and got tagged for the loss, bringing his W/L record to 6-3 and ballooning his ERA to 4.44. Ouch. Cardinals third baseman Blade Ruth appeared to have Nitro’s number, launching two homeruns (3-run in the first inning followed by a solo shot in the third) and was largely responsible for sending Nitro to the showers early. Dale Cooper accounted for the other RBI off Nitro with a double that he got caught trying to stretch into a triple. One bright spot from this start was that Nitro walked nobody — but that probably was because he was giving Charlotte batters very hittable pitches. This was the shortest outing of the year for Nitro, who’s given up at least three runs in six of his last 10 starts and five runs in three of those six outings.

After a hot start to Nitro’s SBL career, are opposing batters now starting to figure him out? These batters are getting better with each passing week and Nitro will need to continue to improve / work on his pitches in order to stay ahead of them. Velocity will only get you so far in the bigs.