When the Florida Marlins' Ricky Nolasco took the mound in Atlanta on Wednesday night, he did so hoping to finish off an arduous season on a high note.
Six months earlier, Nolasco had entered his 2009 campaign looking to build on a phenomenal breakout effort that saw him post a solid 3.52 ERA and 1.10 WHIP the previous year. Wedged between his 2009 debut on April 6 and his season finale two nights ago were a slew of trying times and terrible luck.
Nolasco's emergence as an elite starting pitcher during the 2008 season was surprising to many, but his peripheral statistics suggested that it was not a fluke. Sure, he allowed 28 home runs and took on a load of 212.1 innings, scores above his previous career high. But the 26-year-old also logged a terrific 186-to-42 (4.43) strikeout-to-walk ratio that ranked seventh among all starters in the majors and foretold even brighter things to come.
Five of the six names above Nolasco on the aforementioned list were stars: Roy Halladay, Dan Haren, Josh Beckett, Cliff Lee and Mike Mussina. The young Marlin had clearly made his bid to join their class. His task this year was to replicate it.
And so, manager Fredi Gonzalez gave Nolasco the ball on Opening Day against the Washington Nationals. He responded with six innings, during which he struck out six batters while walking none to earn a victory. Unfortunately, Nolasco also allowed five runs on seven hits in that game.
Things continued in the same vein for most of April and May. Nolasco was keeping his walks down and his strikeouts up, yet the hits kept on coming, no matter whom he was facing. In mid-May, Nolasco's batting average on balls in play (BABIP) against was over .400, 100 points above the league average. Every groundball seemed destined to find a hole and every ducksnort liner managed to drop, to the point where one had to wonder if Nolasco had stolen Lady Luck's purse and spit in her face.
Hoping to turn his fortunes around, the Marlins sent their former ace to Class-AAA New Orleans, where he promptly turned in a pair of excellent performances to earn a trip back to Florida. And from June 7 on, Nolasco — with the exception of three starts — has been one of the most dominant starting pitchers in baseball.
Excluding rough outings on Aug. 12, Aug. 23 and Sept. 14, Nolasco went 11-3 with a 2.73 ERA over 128.2 innings since returning from the minors. He walked just 26 batters over that span while fanning a whopping 149. That's an outstanding 5.73 strikeout-to-walk ratio, which would put him third on the major league leaderboard, behind only Halladay and Haren.
But Nolasco's rotten luck during the first two months of the season marred his total numbers to the point where, even after that streak of brilliance, he still came into Wednesday night's start against the Atlanta Braves with a record of just 12-9 and an ERA of 5.28. Yet that mattered little to the reemerging ace. All he wanted was to end the year the right way.
So, Ricky Nolasco took the mound at Turner Field, facing a Braves lineup that had scored more runs than any other National League team since the All-Star break and needed a win to stay alive in the Wild Card race.
Nolasco had every pitch in his arsenal — fastball, slider, curveball, splitter — working on Wednesday night, and his command was as good as ever. He struck out Nate McLouth to open the game and didn't look back from there.
By the time Nolasco departed with the score favoring the Marlins 5-2 in the eighth inning, he had sent 16 Atlanta batters back to the dugout shaking their heads, the highest single-game strikeout total for any pitcher this season, topping the 15-punchout efforts of Tim Lincecum and Zack Greinke.
Starting with Adam LaRoche to lead off the third and continuing until Chipper Jones finished the fifth, Nolasco went through the Braves lineup and told every player to grab some pine, becoming just the third pitcher in the modern era — and the first since Jake Peavy in 2007 — to strike out nine consecutive hitters. Nolasco's streak was just one shy of Hall of Famer Tom Seaver's record 10 straight K's, set on April 22, 1970.
All told, Nolasco allowed two runs (none earned) on four hits and two walks, lowering his season ERA to 5.06 and picking up his 13th win of the season. His effort was the epitome of finishing strong.
Let Lady Luck keep her purse, Ricky, and you'll do just fine.
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