For the month of June, his ERA is 21.00 and his WHIP is 3.33. I suck at posting charts, but if you look at this month by month stats at the link below, he seems to have fallen off a cliff. So - the important question - is he cooked or is this just a hickup that will right itself?

http://boston.redsox.mlb.com/stats/individ...&statType=2

I posted this is last night's game thread but seems appropriate here:

Check out his splits:

vs. O's - 8 ER in 5.1 Innings
vs. LA - 1 ER in 2.2 Innings pitched

Compare that to all the other team's he's faced in 08' to date:
vs. CLE - 0 ER
vs. DET - 0 ER
vs. KAN - 0 ER
vs. MIN - 0 ER
vs. NYY - 0 ER
vs. OAK - 0 ER
vs. SEA - 0 ER
vs. TOR - 0 ER
vs. TAM - 0 ER
Total - 0.00 ER in 21.2 IP

If it weren't for the O's we wouldn't be having this thread.

ESPN splits

I think it's more likely this is a hiccup, not a hickup. If this was a hickup, Oki would be in the rusted out flatbed of a 1961 Ford pickup with some chick from Kentucky picking the hay out of his ass-crack.

Oki's struggles against the O's are curious. But from my observations, it seems like he gets behind in the count every time they face him, which leads to bad things. Plus, the Monster has hurt him several times on fly balls that might have been outs in other parks.

That being said, I'm only tentatively optimistic about Oki's performance down the stretch. Even in those other games where he didn't give up a run, he's let inherited runners score and given up some hits.

It makes me feel a lot better, though, that Craig Hansen is starting to pitch like the man-beast he is.

Thanks - I appreciate the public humiliation. Always good for the ego. If you want - you can use your magic powers and change it.

it was only natural he'd come back to earth some after last season.

I don't really see the point of this. Are you saying we should only worry when Okajima is facing is Baltimore or are you pointing this out as an interesting statistical fluke? If it's the latter then I apologize for calling you out, but all I see that as is an interesting coincidence.

I hope it is an anomaly. However, the precipitous drop off is disconcerting.

Agreed. I'd like to see the same chart with inherited runners scored added to it.

Those stats may be an anomaly or a mere coincidence, that will become clear over time. However, as of today it certainly jumps off the pages. Really, 8 of 9 ER came from a single team, I think that's note worthy. Also, Oki has blown the lead in 6 games this season, 3 of those games were against the O's.



Yup, he's allowed 11 or 14 inherited runners to score this season, certainly a huge concern.
Consider however that he's come into 3 games this season (vs. LAA Apr. 24th , DET May 5th, & BAL May 14th) with the bases loaded and 8 of those 9 runners came around to score. Bases loaded situations account for 8 of the 11 inherited runners he's allowed to score. Again, maybe a coincidence but given the lopsidedness of the distribution of IR in the same game situation having scored, I also think it's worth noting.




Great point & a nice lead in to an interesting quote from Tembley made after last night's game:



Link

Perhaps teams, or at least the O's, have figuered him out.

In both instances, I don't think Terry had a quick enough of a hook on him. He should have pulled him Tuesday when he loaded the bases, not after he gave up the lead.

My questions is, whatever happened to that "secret pitch" he was working on in Spring Training that would help him this year to adjustments teams might make. Was he referring to the Letter High BP Fastball? He certainly didnt show that pitch much last year so that must be it.