Baltimore Orioles: Wei-Yin Chen and Run Support

Aug 16, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen (16) pitches during the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports

Baltimore Orioles starter Wei-Yin Chen certainly cannot complain about any lack of run support on Sunday afternoon against the Oakland Athletics. Giving up a first-inning run and struggling with some high pitch counts, it looked for the first two innings like the battle of the vowels might again come down to the O’s needing to walk-off a homer against the A’s.

But then the Orioles scored 18 runs on 26 hits, as we yesterday chronicled all the things that went well in an incredible offensive explosion. It was monstrous, even by slow-pitch softball standards.

Buck Showalter, Adam Jones and several other players remarked about how, at different times in a baseball career, one gets to live on both sides of games such as these.

And Wei-Yin Chen has lived on both sides when it comes to the run support he has received. The win yesterday was only the seventh this season for Chen, who tallied a total of 16 last year. So he’s not having a season that is nearly as good, right? Nope! It is actually a bit better this year than in 2014.

Let’s look at some numbers. First, here are his basic categorical stats from his four years in Baltimore … (OBA = opponent batting average) …

Year	G	W-L	ERA	OBA	WHIP
2012	32	12-11	4.02	.250	1.261
2013	23	7-7	4.07	.272	1.321
2014	31	16-6	3.54	.266	1.228
2015	23	7-6	3.20	.252	1.170
Total	109	42-30	3.72	.260	1.240

Clearly by these numbers, Chen is having a very good season in spite of his record. Records can lie — at least a little bit — but the earned run average, especially for starters, tends to tell the truth over time. And I would submit that the WHIP tells the most truth, and clearly it is quite decent at 1.170 this year … very good for a starter.

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Looking at the won-loss record, one would immediately assume that Chen surely had some good run support from the offence in 2014, and that is true. Here are the averages of numbers of runs scored by the Orioles in Chen’s four years in Baltimore …

2012 — 4.6

2013 — 4.1

2014 — 5.7

2015 — 3.6

That final number for this year is actually from before the 18-run game on Sunday. Once that is factored in, the average rises immediately to 4.2 runs per game.

The great baseball-reference.com web site tracks run support in three categories: 0 to 2 run per game, 3 to 5, and 6 or more. Let me chart that for you also over the four years, giving the totals in each category as well as Chen’s ERA and won-loss record for each …

Runs	‘12	‘13	‘14	‘15	Total	ERA	W-L
0-2	8	5	8	7	28	4.14	4-21
3-5	16	12	12	11	51	3.49	19-9
6+	8	5	11	5	30	3.74	19-0
Total	32	23	31	23	109	3.72	42-20

Indeed, the chart above demonstrates the great run support that Chen received in 2014 on his way to a 16-7 record. And though he appears to not be having a year of 2015 that is as good, actually it could successfully be argued that it is better.

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