The Marlins topped the Mets, 1-0 on Sunday, in one of the better pitching duels of the year. Much of the attention will be on Matt Harvey looking good for his second successive start after a dreadful first 10 starts of the season, but the winner here was Marlins ace Jose Fernandez. He was brilliant, working seven scoreless innings and striking out 14 against zero walks.
Here's number 14, a career high:
It shouldn't be surprising to see a performance of this caliber, either.
Fernandez was entering the conversation for best non-Kershaw starter in baseball before needing Tommy John surgery in 2014. He came back to make 11 starts last season, going 6-1 with a 2.92 ERA, essentially picking up where he left off. Now he's better than he has ever been and he's still 23 years old.
Just look at the strikeouts. With 14 more added to his season-long total, he takes over the MLB lead from Clayton Kershaw with 110. On a rate basis, he already had the lead among qualified starts. Entering Sunday, only 12 pitchers had a strikeouts-per-nine (K/9) of 10 or more. Only four had 11 or more. Fernandez is now at 13.26 K/9, with the second best mark among qualified starters being Noah Syndergaard's 11.46. So it's Fernandez in a blowout.
That 13.26 K/9 mark over the course of a whole season would be historic, by the way. Here's a list of the pitchers who 1) Qualified for the ERA title (so we're only looking at starting pitchers, basically) and 2) Posted a K/9 of at least 12.00 in a season.
(Via baseball-reference.com play index)
| Pitcher | K/9 | Year |
| Randy Johnson | 13.41 | 2001 |
| Pedro Martinez | 13.20 | 1999 |
| Kerry Wood | 12.58 | 1998 |
| Randy Johnson | 12.56 | 2000 |
| Randy Johnson | 12.35 | 1995 |
| Randy Johnson | 12.30 | 1997 |
| Randy Johnson | 12.12 | 1998 |
| Randy Johnson | 12.06 | 1999 |
Again, Fernandez is at 13.26 right now, so he's so far posting the second-best strikeout rate in MLB history. How about that company, too? Two Hall of Famers and one of the best rate-strikeout pitchers ever in Kerry Wood.
It's not merely the strikeouts, of course. Fernandez now has a 2.29 ERA, 1.06 WHIP and allowed only four home runs in his 74 2/3 innings this season. The Marlins are trying to limit his workload -- his first full year back from Tommy John surgery, just to reiterate -- but he's doing absolutely everything to maximize his production while on the hill.
The All-Star Game starter will probably be Kershaw with Jake Arrieta as a ridiculously good fall-back option, but Fernandez isn't too far behind Arrieta in the pecking order. And, again, he's only 23 years old. Amazing.
