Welcome to the SP Roundup, my daily fantasy baseball article reviewing every starting pitcher’s performance from every Thursday game. I apologize for the jokes written in my delirium in advance. Have questions? Ask me during my office hours on Twitch.tv weekday mornings from 10 am-12 pm ET.
Chris Sale (ATL) vs LAD (W) – 9.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 11 Ks – 20 Whiffs, 39% CSW, 109 pitches.
Chris Sale was an absolute stud on Thursday night. Hosting the Dodgers in Atlanta, the future hall-of-famer returned a CGSHO, while dialing it up to 100.1 mph to strikeout Shohei Ohtani (hardest since 2018!), and enduring a series of challenges in the ninth before finally solidifying the incredible 1-0 victory with a Golden Goal to take home: 9.0 IP, 0 ER, 5 Hits, 0 BBs, 11 Ks – 20 Whiffs, 39% CSW, 109 pitches.
I didn’t expect him to have a season like this. Nobody expected him to have a season like this. I was harsher than others with expectations for his history of injuries to rear its ugly head, and I’m always happy to be blown away. I still can’t truly wrap my head around Sale’s 2.06 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 31% strikeout rate, and 5% walk rate across 144 innings and 24 uninterrupted starts (with a little extra rest in June), and no matter how much skepticism I have about replicating it in 2027, it doesn’t matter right now. Just sit back and enjoy good baseball. (View Game Card)
Let’s see how every other SP did Thursday:
Gordon Graceffo (STL) vs BAL (ND) – 3.0 IP, 0 ER, 0 Hits, 0 BBs, 4 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 42% CSW, 38 pitches.
There was some hope this would be Connor Hjerpe, but instead we got a bullpen game. And none rejoiced. Let’s move on. (View Game Card)
Yoshinobu Yamamoto (LAD) @ ATL (L) – 6.1 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 1 BBs, 8 Ks – 20 Whiffs, 30% CSW, 105 pitches.
Aces gonna be outdueled in a fantastic outing. At least you shared the Gallows Pole, right? That counts for nothing. IT COUNTS FOR SOMETHING. (View Game Card)
Hayden Wesneski (HOU) @ NYY (W) – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 23% CSW, 91 pitches.
Ayyyy it worked! I wasn’t optimistic about this and I feel a little dirty celebrating a start with Wesneski’s sweeper (you know, his best pitch) returning a paltry 56% strikes and 1/25 whiffs. Koufax was kind, the Yankees went fishing a little too much, and he escaped despite so many pitches down the heart of the plate and well out of the zone. He’s still questionable for the White Sox on Wednesday.
Jake Irvin (WSN) vs COL (ND) – 4.1 IP, 1 ER, 3 Hits, 6 BBs, 6 Ks – 10 Whiffs, 28% CSW, 94 pitches.
It was Rockie Road annnnnd he walked six. The changeup failed him and he walked the bases loaded in the first before settling down a touch, but…yeah. He walked six. He’s not ready. (View Game Card)
Landen Roupp (SFG) vs ARI (W) – 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 4 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 24% CSW, 95 pitches.
Hmmmmm. It was a better result than many of his recent outings, but the curve and sinker were not nearly the pitches we’ve seen in the past. I guess we’re okay with the Pirates up next, but Roupp isn’t the man we want him to be. (View Game Card)
Jose Cabrera (ARI) @ SFG (L) – 4.1 IP, 2 ER, 3 Hits, 1 BBs, 4 Ks – 5 Whiffs, 27% CSW, 70 pitches.
You know, for a guy who had a 29% strike rate on his four-seamer, his most-thrown pitch, this is a ridiculous achievement. When we first saw Cabrera, he was a fantastic strike thrower and this was a guy all over the place. No way, Cab-rera. (View Game Card)
Jacob Misiorowski (MIL) @ NYM (W) – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 Hits, 2 BBs, 6 Ks – 12 Whiffs, 26% CSW, 89 pitches.
Aces gonna ace. I can’t believe he sat nearly two ticks down to live at…98.7 mph on his four-seamer. What a bum!If he commanded his cutter and heater a little better, he could have seen seven. Just saying. (View Game Card)
Noah Cameron (KCR) @ TOR (W) – 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 6 Hits, 2 BBs, 3 Ks – 11 Whiffs, 35% CSW, 81 pitches.
The ride is still on the tracks. For now…I keep seeing these weird quick cuts of a bolt jiggling on this train! Whoa, that’s an interesting metaphysical event you’re having there. It may be fueled by Cameron’s fastball sitting 92 mph and not 93/94 mph for another start? Or marking the third straight start featuring an extraordinarily poor 25% or lower putaway rate? Shouldn’t that PAR rate normalize to 40%+? You’d think, but that’s three of four games, y’all. This may be coming undone before our eyes. It doesn’t mean move on, it means be ready to move on if it doesn’t go well against the Marlins or Sneks. (View Game Card)
Gerrit Cole (NYY) vs HOU (L) – 6.0 IP, 3 ER, 6 Hits, 1 BBs, 5 Ks – 11 Whiffs, 32% CSW, 79 pitches.
Aces gonna ace for five frames, then throw a hanging 1-0 curveball to Walker for a two-run shot in the sixth. Careful, Icarus. He didn’t earn a single strikeout on his secondaries in this one, and Cole knew they weren’t at their sharpest, so he went 60% four-seamers in two-strike counts instead. Smart fella. It’s great to see that Cole is not Spencer Strider as so many feared post-TJS, with a 3.19 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, and 26% strikeout rate through nearly 100 IP thus far. Way to be. (View Game Card)
Spencer Arrighetti (TOR) vs KCR (L) – 4.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 Hits, 2 BBs, 4 Ks – 8 Whiffs, 27% CSW, 79 pitches.
The Pasta Pirate is nothing close to the pitcher I believed he could be two years ago. It’s unfortunate, as the flat 1.7 HAVAA and 7.3 feet of extension on his two-plane 92 mph four-seamer is not getting spotted as it should, while we’re still not seeing Arrighetti utilize the full depth of his arsenal. Maybe one day…
Gabriel Hughes (COL) @ WSN (L) – 5.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 Hits, 4 BBs, 3 Ks – 9 Whiffs, 14% CSW, 95 pitches.
It was one really interesting start, alright? EXTREMES ARE COOL. (View Game Card)
Sean Manaea (NYM) vs MIL (L) – 5.2 IP, 6 ER, 8 Hits, 1 BBs, 3 Ks – 7 Whiffs, 24% CSW, 95 pitches.
Yiiiikes. The four-seamer is still at 92 mph (not 93, but we’ll take this), but it’s not missing bats, nor is it getting upstairs as he wants it to. He tried to mask it with a large focus on his cutter out of nowhere (been a while since we’ve seen it), which did as much as it could. His one hit allowed on the pitch was a weak flare, while the fastballs and sweeper were all laced and deserved to find grass (or the seats). I’m leaning toward moving on from Manaea, but a date @TBR and @MIA up next still have a chance to go well. Search for a better streamer if you can. (View Game Card)
Trevor Rogers (BAL) @ STL (L) – 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 7 Hits, 1 BBs, 7 Ks – 9 Whiffs, 33% CSW, 86 pitches.
Bleeeeeeegh. I don’t even think he pitched poorly overall. This was mostly two bad pitches over the heart of the plate to RHB, who launched them for two HRs and 5 RBI. Really, that’s it. He was still at 94/95 mph and upstairs with the four-seamer, the sweeper was down, the changeup was…not as consistent, and it was one of those days. He has those a lot. Does he? I guess the four-inning weirdness happened, but that didn’t even hurt your team. It’s the, what, second harmful start he’s had since the end of May? Across 15 starts? Please don’t do something silly. (View Game Card)
Game of the Day
Andrew Painter vs. Reid Detmers – I just want to see the dope 98 mph four-seamer from Painter again. Detmers hopefully flexing a great slider would be icing on the cake.
But Nick?! Where are the streaming picks? – I’ve moved them to the daily SP Matchups & Streamer Rankings article.
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Photo by Rich von Biberstein/Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Justin Paradis (@JustParaDesigns on Twitter/X; @justinparadis.bsky.social on BlueSky)
