ESPN: Nomar Swings And Misses

As John Lackey took his warm-ups in the bottom of the first inning last night, ESPN's play-by-play man Dave O'Brien noted Lackey's 7.36 ERA, as an on-screen graphic informed us that among MLB pitchers with at least 10 starts, Lackey's ERA is the absolute worst in baseball.

Nomar Garciaparra, in the analyst's chair for the evening, responded:

Lackey's ERA may be high, but he's 3-1 since coming off the disabled list.

Hey! 3-1 sounds pretty good. Who would turn their nose up at three wins out of every four starts? ... No one, that's who.

But - just out of curiosity, since we were talking about ERA - what was Lackey's ERA in those four starts?

6.26.

Well, maybe he got slapped around in that one loss. Dude gets hammered and it throws his stats out of whack. It happens. What was Lackey's ERA in his three wins?

5.03.

Hmmmm. Lackey pitched 19.2 innings in those three wins and allowed 17 hits, 4 walks, and 2 home runs; he also hit 3 batters. Boston won the games by scores of 6-3, 16-4, and 10-4.