That's Josh Johnson's batting average...allowed. In five starts this year, he has pitched 34 innings, allowing just 13 hits. It seems every time he pitches, he carries a no-hitter deep into the game, which is not far from the truth. The earliest hit he has allowed in a game was Jason Werth's solo homer on April 7th, with 1 out in the fourth. He has carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning 3 times already, of course getting 22 outs before allowing a hit against the Braves recently. However, looking at the numbers presents an interesting fact: His line through 5 innings reads 25 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 6 BB, 28 K (.039 BA, 0.36 WHIP, 10.1 K/9). In innings 6-8, albeit in a small sample size, he has pitched 9 innings, allowed 3 runs on 10 hits and 3 walks while striking out only 5 (.286 BA, 1.44 WHIP, 5 K/9). As with any pitcher, batters hit better after seeing them more times, but is this figure more pronounced with Johnson?

Josh Johnson will not continue to take no-hitters deep into games every start, and will eventually allow a hit (and a run) before the fourth inning. And having an ERA of 3.00 after the 5th inning is terrible by no one's standards. But you wonder: If he wasn't so effective as a starter, would he be an absolutely dominant reliever, facing batters only once? Just a random, interesting stat.