2018 Twins Highlights: Top Pitching Performances

If you read the game recaps here at Twins Daily you should at least have some familiarity with the term Game Score. It’s a fun stat originally created by Bill James as a way to evaluate a starter’s performance. Tom Tango then built on that idea and developed Game Score 2.0. Here’s a link to some more information on how it works.

On the downside, Game Score isn’t the most scientific of stats, but on the other hand it’s fairly simple and straightforward. Without further adieu, here are the top five Twins pitching performances of 2018 per Game Score 2.0:

5. Jose Berrios, 85 Game Score vs. STL on May 15

7.1 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 10 K

https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/1053467856732676096

4. Jose Berrios, 86 Game Score vs. TEX on June 24

7.0 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 12 K

https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/1053468139558723585

3. Jose Berrios, 86 Game Score vs. CHW on June 7

9.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 10 K

*I used total outs recorded as the tiebreaker between this and the the other 86 score.

https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/1053468435261349890

2. Jose Berrios, 87 Game Score vs. CHW on April 12

7.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 11 K

https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/1053468772135288832

1. Jose Berrios, 92 Game Score at BAL on April 1

9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 6 K

https://twitter.com/TwinsHighlights/status/1053469711588118529

That’s right, Berrios had all five of the best starts for the Twins as measured by Game Score 2.0. Kyle Gibson was the more consistent pitcher, but it was Berrios’ ability to go out and toss a gem that helped him earn a narrow victory in the voting for Twins Daily Pitcher of the Year.

Speaking of Gibson, he just missed the cut, topping out at 84. He achieved that score on July 12 against Tampa Bay when he pitched eight innings of one-run ball with five hits, no walks and nine strikeouts. Jake Odorizzi’s best Game Score was a 78. That was the game where he carried a no-hitter late into the game, but ended up giving up a run on one hit and three walks over 7 1/3 innings, picking up five strikeouts in the process.

In case you missed them, here are the previous installments of the 2018 Highlights Series:

Walk-Off Wins | I took a look back at all six of the Twins’ walk-off wins from 2018.

Super Rosario and La Tortuga | Eddie Rosario and Willians Astudillo provided excitement in an otherwise down season. Here I reviewed some of their most entertaining moments.