Last weekend, Carlos Silva became the first Chicago Cub to start a season 6-0 in over four decades by beating the Texas Rangers, 5-4. It wasn’t an especially notable start; Silva went 5 1-3 and gave up three runs in the winning effort, striking out only one batter and issuing one walk. In fact, given his career it was as Silva-esque as a win could get.
Carlos Silva Is Good All Of A Sudden?
Today, on the other hand, Silva pitched a game that was so outlandishly aberrant that we think he may have been Johan Santana in a fat suit. Silva struck out 11 Cardinals over seven innings of two-hit baseball, and the Cubs rolled to a 5-0 victory. It was the best start of Silva’s life during the best season of his life. And it came completely out of nowhere.
More information about how unusual this performance was after the break.
Silva’s never thrown more than 89 strikeouts in an entire season (no, really), so as you can probably guess, that 11 strikeouts was a career high. In fact, today was just the second day of Silva’s career when he even topped six Ks; back in 2004, he struck out eight Phillies. That’s it.
In fact, Silva threw more strikeouts today than he did in all of 2009. Sure, he only had six starts and 30 1/3 innings that year, but still; that’s more than 30 innings, and he only threw 10 strikeouts during them.
This isn’t Silva’s only brush with statistical irregularities. Recall that in 2005, Silva only threw nine walks for the entire year, placing him 7th on the list of fewest BBs per 9 IP ever. Also, take note that Silva’s season is the only one on that list that is not from 1884 or prior. Further, take note that the list includes such awesome names as Pud Galvin, Tricky Nichols, and Peek-A-Boo Veach.
But not walking batters very often is one thing. Doesn’t make you a great pitcher; Peek-A-Boo Veach, for example, went 3-9 during the season that got him on this list. But winning five straight starts? Obliterating a career high in strikeouts? Being undefeated through May (yes, wins are stupid)? Those are quite another thing altogether, and the fact that Carlos Silva is accomplishing them is, frankly, mind-blowing. It also proves two important facts.
- Every AL pitcher should come to the NL, because their ERAs will plummet on account of every team in the NL being comically bad at baseball.
- There is no number two; I just wanted to write Peek-A-Boo Veach one more time. Peek-A-Boo Veach.
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