We covered the no-hitter Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez threw against the Braves a month ago and the guy hasn’t stopped dominating since. Jimenez handled the Astros’ weak lineup with ease, giving up just one hit over seven innings while walking two and striking out four. Although Ubaldo’s stud performance comes with the caveat that it was achieved against the Astros, Jimenez has dominated all opponents equally. Despite facing teams with an OPS of 742, Ubaldo leads MLB with an 8-1 record and 0.99 ERA — not too bad numbers for having completed around 30% of the season. As if the 0.99 ERA doesn’t already tell you how good Ubaldo has been, this might make you understand: Jimenez has allowed only four runs in the six starts since his no-hitter.
The crazy part about Jimenez’s dominant performance against Houston is that he didn’t even have his best stuff “At the beginning of the game I didn’t feel good because I was throwing everything high, but as the game went on, I started getting better. In the fifth and sixth inning I started pounding the strike zone and throwing my breaking ball for strikes.” Watching the game it was easy to notice Ubaldo’s elevated velocity. What I didn’t realize was that when he was throwing 98mph regularly, that was his sinker, not his fastball. Combining that ridiculous speed with his stuff, it’s easy to see why he’s been so successful. As long as his arm holds up over the course of the season, he should continue to have plenty of success and contend for the Cy Young Award.
Sources:
Rockies shut out Astros 4-0 [AP Recap/Yahoo! Sports]
Photo Credit: Scott Boehm/Getty Images
