Jakob Junis Loses to Mariners
6 years agoKansas City Royals starting pitcher Jakob Junis was chased early by Seattle on Tuesday as he surrendered four earned runs in four innings. Junis gave up eight hits and walked one, but he also struck out six in the shortened outing. Junis was snakebit once again in this outing, and he's currently one of the unluckiest pitchers in the league so far this year. Junis has a BABIP of .409 against him so far, he's stranding 7% fewer runners than he did last year, and his xFIP is 2.5 runs lower than his current ERA of 5.74. His K-BB% of 21.1% is in the top 25 in the league, and his swinging strike rate is 3% higher than it was last season. It's not clear yet if this is a permanent change or just a situation where a small sample size is king, but for now, it looks like Junis may be a breakout candidate this season.
Source: MLB.com
Source: MLB.com