Saturday, May 17, 2014

2014: COMPLETE GAMES #24, 25

Two more complete games last night--the Blue Jays' Drew Hutchison outdueled Yu Darvish in Texas, hurling a three-hit shutout as Toronto prevailed, 2-0. The 23-year-old Hutchison (another young pitcher on the 2014 complete game list, but the first to have had Tommy John surgery) struck out six and threw a total of 105 pitchers. It was his first lifetime complete game.

Elsewhere, the Orioles' Chris Tillman shut out the Royals in Kansas City, scattering five hits in a 4-0 Baltimore victory. Tillman, who turned 26 in April, stepped up his game in 2012, consolidated it last season, and appears to have established himself as the O's ace. If the Orioles can get the rest of their rotation to step up and Chris Davis starts hitting HRs again, they could make things very tough for their AL East rivals.

The current projection for total number of complete games in 2014 now stands at: 98.