On Friday (7/4), Chris Sale fanned 12 Mariners to record his second complete game of 2014 as the White Sox beat Seattle, 7-1. Chris upped his season record to 8-1 while lowering his ERA to 2.16. It was his second CG of the year. Despite missing some weeks due to injury, he's insinuating himself back into the Cy Young conversation.
Yesterday (7/5), Matt Garza allowed only two hits to the Reds as the Milwaukee Brewers made a single run scored in the first inning stand up for a 1-0 victory. Garza, who's been up and down this year, struck out nine and improved his season W-L record to 6-5.The key features of complete games would be hit prevention (4.4 H/9), walk prevention (1.1 BB/9) and avoidance of the long ball (just 14 HR allowed in 541 IP). All of that contributes to a minuscule ERA in these games, holding steady at 0.60.
Current pace for total number of complete games in 2014: 113. If that holds, we won't be breaking the record for fewest CGs, set in 2007.
