With another excellent effort last night, Jair Jurrjens continued his excellent start to the 2011 season. In his 9 starts, he has yet to give up more than 2 earned runs in a start. Equally impressive is that he has yet to walk more than 2 batters in any start.
Jurrjens' walk rate for the season now stands at 1.5 BB/9 (or 4.5% BB%). That's half of his previous career levels of 3.2 BB/9 and 8.5 BB%. It is undoubtedly the key to his renewed success, as his strikeout rate has actually gone down this year (5.2 K/9 compared to 6.4 K/9 career before this year).
How impressive is Jurrjens' streak? Well, he's only the third starting pitcher since 1919 to start a season with 9 games of 2 or fewer ER and 2 or fewer BB. Here's the list:
- Juan Marichal, 10 in 1966
- Bill Hands, 9 in 1968
- Jair Jurrjens, 9 in 2011
No one else has even had an 8-game streak to start a season. Not even Greg Maddux (whose longest streak to start a season was actually only 5 games).
Of course, the "to start a season" modifier is kind of cheap, because really, why does it matter when the streak starts? Jurrjens also fares extremely well when you consider all streaks, not just those to start a season. His 9-game streak ranks in a many-way tie for 17th all time. Here are the only 16 players to top him:
| Rk | Player | Strk Start | End | Games | W | L | IP | Tm | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mort Cooper | 1942-08-14 | 1943-05-09 | 14 | 11 | 1 | 127.1 | 0.92 | STL |
| 2 | Greg Maddux | 1995-05-23 | 1995-07-29 | 13 | 9 | 0 | 105.2 | 1.19 | ATL |
| 3 | Kevin Brown | 1996-04-26 | 1996-07-06 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 83.1 | 1.40 | FLA |
| Jim Merritt | 1967-06-25 | 1967-08-18 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 101.1 | 1.60 | MIN | |
| 5 | Greg Maddux | 2002-06-15 | 2002-08-07 | 11 | 5 | 1 | 64.0 | 1.27 | ATL |
| Butch Henry | 1995-07-15 | 1997-09-19 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 71.0 | 1.14 | MON-BOS | |
| Greg Maddux | 1994-07-02 | 1995-05-07 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 83.2 | 1.08 | ATL | |
| Tom Seaver | 1973-07-09 | 1973-08-25 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 95.0 | 1.23 | NYM | |
| Juan Marichal | 1965-09-30 | 1966-05-26 | 11 | 9 | 0 | 99.0 | 0.73 | SFG | |
| Dutch Leonard | 1945-04-22 | 1945-06-27 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 79.0 | 1.25 | WSH | |
| Jesse Barnes | 1920-07-17 | 1920-09-06 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 87.1 | 1.03 | NYG | |
| 12 | Dan Haren | 2009-05-28 | 2009-07-18 | 10 | 7 | 1 | 75.0 | 1.44 | ARI |
| Greg Maddux | 1997-04-06 | 1997-05-27 | 10 | 6 | 0 | 68.2 | 1.18 | ATL | |
| Bryn Smith | 1988-06-22 | 1988-08-12 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 66.0 | 1.50 | MON | |
| Steve Hargan | 1974-08-17 | 1975-05-08 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 71.1 | 2.14 | TEX | |
| Ray Prim | 1945-08-08 | 1945-09-20 | 10 | 6 | 4 | 77.2 | 1.39 | CHC | |
| 17 | Jair Jurrjens | 2011-04-16 | 2011-05-29 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 65.2 | 1.51 | ATL |
| 17 others | 9 |
Boy, that Greg Maddux guy was pretty good, wasn't he?
Among those tied with Jurrjens with a 9-game streak are Chris Carpenter (2008-9), Zack Greinke (2009), Kevin Millwood (1999), and the Hall of Famers Don Drysdale (1968) and Pete "Grover Cleveland" Alexander (1919).
Not bad company for a 25-year-old.
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