Weekly MLB Pitching Review

By Guest
Updated: August 31, 2012

By SBRForum.com

Another edition of the weekly MLB pitching report has arrived, where we take a closer look at the best efforts from the past few days.

Our breakdown begins on Saturday, when Clayton Kershaw, Justin Masterson and Jeff Karstens really brought their A games.

Kershaw, who has to be a legitimate contender for the NL Cy Young award this season, survived a rough couple of opening frames to completely shut down the Miami Marlins as the game progressed. He finished by logging eight innings, allowing only three hits and two runs while striking out eight.

Perhaps more impressive was the fact Masterson was able to out-duel one of the hottest pitchers in the league in his victory. The Cleveland ace went 6 and 2/3 innings and gave up only one run, getting the win over Hiroki Kuroda and the New York Yankees.

While Mike Rogers and Chris Volstad each pitched extremely well on Sunday, reliable veteran Tim Hudson was the star of the show.

Hudson continues to show why he’s one of the most consistent pitchers of all time. He baffled the San Francisco Giants in his start, holding them to five hits and one earned run in seven innings. Hudson only need 82 pitchers to get through seven and pushed his record to 13-4 on the year.

There were a few more pitching gems on Monday, leading to some big winners in the MLB odds, but Felix Hernandez stole the headlines once again with another dominant outing. He pitched another complete game shutout in a 1-0 win for Seattle over Minnesota, limiting the Twins to five hits. King Felix is now 13-5 with a 2.43 this season. Impressive stuff.

Tuesday was an excellent day for pitching. James McDonald, Ricky Nolasco and Chris Tillman all were terrific, but our focus was on Yu Darvish and Kris Medlen.

Darvish, who’s dealt with inconsistency this season, was at his electrifying best in a close win over Tampa Bay. He recorded seven innings of work and surrendered six hits and no earned runs, while walking two and whiffing ten batters.

As for Medlen, he stifled San Diego, pitching eight shutout innings and giving up five hits. The right-hander is now 6-1 with a remarkable 1.71 ERA on the season for the Braves, who couldn’t have asked for much more after inserting him into the rotation.