In last night?s 4-0 win, R.A. Dickey allowed just one hit with two walks and a career-high 13 strikeouts ? he has not allowed an earned run in five starts, which spans a franchise record 42 2/3 innings.
Last night marked the franchise?s 37th one-hitter in their history and now has a major-league best three complete-games this season. It had been 24 years since back-to-back one-hitters were thrown ? Dave Stieb accomplished the feat in 1988 ? and Dickey is the first National League pitcher to accomplish the feat since Jim Tobin did so in 1944.
Dickey?s 103 strikeouts on the season ties him with Justin Verlander for the most in the majors and his 2.00 ERA ties him for the best in the majors with Brandon Beachy.
It was his seventh consecutive outing of eight strikeouts or more and has five straight starts of zero earned runs and eight or more strikeouts, the longest streak in baseball history.
?You just almost get emotional out there,? Dickey explained. ?Especially that last hitter, you can hear everybody, its like a heartbeat, one big heartbeat beating, you know its pretty neat and that?s the best way I can explain it.
Dickey improved 11-1 this season, extended his winning streak to a career-best nine consecutive decisions (1.21 ERA and 88 strikeouts in 81 2/3 innings over that span), and is the first pitcher in Mets history to be ten games above .500 this early (in terms of team games played) in a season.
?I just have been working hard on trying to repeat my mechanics and try to produce a good knuckle-ball,? Dickey said. ?That is where I feel most stable and I?m just gonna try to continue to do that, but as far as getting outside that its just not worth it for me.?
Dickey became 10th pitcher since 1900 with one-hitters in consecutive appearances and the first pitcher since 1900 to throw back-to-back complete-game, one-hitters with ten or more strikeouts.
?That?s why everybody roots for him. That?s why everybody is in his corner,? Terry Collins said after the game. ?All the things he had to deal with to get here. Two years ago, this guy didn?t make the club out of Spring Training ? he was the first guy cut. All he?s done is gotten better, better and better.?
Dickey and Johan Santana have combined to go 15-4 with a 2.54 ERA in 177 innings this season.
?That?s what the top of the rotation does,? Collins said. ?They stop streaks. They stop losing streaks, they stop the opposition?s winning streak. He?s a guy we need out there, when times are tough for us, he?s out there giving us chances to win.?
Michael Baron: We are witnessing the evolution of true greatness with R.A. Dickey. He is, hands down, the best pitcher in baseball this season and the most entertaining pitcher in the game as well. The streak and the records he is setting indicates Dickey is perhaps having the best season of any pitcher in years.
Dickey?s Game Scores of 95 and 96 in his last two starts completely summarize what he has done in the last week ? he has produced efforts which are epic, heroic, dominating, inspiring and unworldly. Just when I thought he could not possibly be better than he was last week against the Rays, he was both to the eyes and statistically as well.
Last night could be attributed to a lack of familiarity on the part of the Orioles, but right now, Dickey has the ability to dominate on any given night. His knuckleball is under complete control in all parts of the strikezone and he has the ability to locate it and move it in any direction. Dickey?s rising knuckleball is perhaps the most fascinating pitch I?ve ever seen ? it starts just above the knees and ends up tailing up towards the outside part of the plate to the left-handed hitter, giving it a screwball look from that perspective. What?s more, he varies the speed on the pitch to perfection, leaving anyone who sees it more or less clueless.
The buzz and interest Dickey generates reminds me of what happened in the mid 1980?s with Dwight Gooden. Everyone seems to stop to see what Dickey might do next and, like Gooden did in 1984 and 1985, the man gets better and better with each inning, and each pitch. He is generating an energy among us we haven?t felt in recent memory . It?s unusual a guy who doesn?t throw hard can become such an icon in baseball, especially at such an advanced age for the game. Dickey is an inspiring individual in more ways than baseball and, needless to say, I am glad he is on our team.
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