Ryan Dull of the Oakland Athletics isn't exactly a household name, even among die-hard baseball fans, but he's having an incredible 2016 season.
The raw numbers for the 26-year-old right-hander: 2.41 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 40 K, 8 BB, 37 1/3 IP.
That's pretty great. What doesn't show up in a reliever's ERA, however, is what makes Dull most impressive. He's had an uncanny knack for leaving inherited runners on base this season. Let's take a look at a few examples.
How about on April 11, when he inherited two runners and then struck out Mike Trout to leave the bases loaded?
Or on May 7, when he inherited two runners against the powerful Orioles' offense and again left the bases loaded with a strikeout:
Last Thursday, Dull entered with the bases loaded and one out. He'd strike out the two batters he saw to leave 'em loaded yet again:
These are not cherry-picked examples in order to make a player look good. Dull has done plenty of that on his own this season. He has been tasked with leaving 30 inherited runners on base and has done so every single time.
Yes, seriously.
Thirty inherited runners. Thirty stranded runners.
In MLB history, only nine pitchers have ever gone a full season with at least 30 inherited runners (IR) and had fewer than 6.5 percent score.
| Pitcher, team | Year | IR | R | % |
| Wilton Lopez, Astros | 2010 | 33 | 1 | 3.03 |
| J.P. Howell, Dodgers | 2014 | 35 | 2 | 5.71 |
| Justin Speier, Rockies | 2002 | 35 | 2 | 5.71 |
| Darold Knowles, Phillies | 1966 | 52 | 3 | 5.77 |
| Greg Holland, Royals | 2011 | 33 | 2 | 6.06 |
| Frank LaCorte, Astros | 1980 | 33 | 2 | 6.06 |
| Sean Doolittle, A's | 2013 | 32 | 2 | 6.25 |
| Dennis Eckersley, A's | 1992 | 31 | 2 | 6.45 |
| Dave Schmidt, Rangers | 1985 | 31 | 2 | 6.45 |
Source: Baseball-reference.com play index
Worth noting: Josh Osich of the Giants has inherited 31 runners this season so far and has only allowed two to score.
In all, we know there is still a ton of season left to play and that it's pretty likely at some point Dull will allow an inherited runner to score.
If he doesn't, it'll be a record. Easily, in fact. No pitcher in MLB history has ever inherited more than 30 runners and allowed zero of them to score. The current record for a full season is only 22, which happened by Randy Myers in 1998 with the Blue Jays and Padres (he was otherwise ineffective in the final season of his career).
Dull is on quite the run and deserves his kudos. Consider this piece the beginning.
