On Saturday, Halladay (7-3) just about delivered checkmate, tossing the 20th perfect game in big league history against the Florida Marlins.
On Monday, Jimenez went on the attack, shutting out the San Francisco Giants 4-0, beating two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum.
Your move, Roy.
Jimenez (10-1) became the major league’s first 10-game winner as he scattered four hits and two walks, striking out nine Giants hitters along the way. It was Jimenez’s second shutout of the year, with the other being his no-hitter on April 17 in Atlanta.
The right-hander now has an eye-popping ERA of just 0.78, with an equally miniscule WHIP of 0.90. Bob Gibson’s 1.12 ERA in 1968 is considered the modern record for earned run average, and Jimenez is on his way to breaking it, having only allowed seven earned runs in 80 1/3 innings pitched in 2010.
Former Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant has the modern American League record, when he posted a 1.60 ERA for the Cleveland Indians in 1968, the same year as Gibson’s mark.
The closest any pitcher has come to Gibson’s record was Dwight Gooden in 1985, when he posted a 1.53 ERA for the New York Mets.
Pedro Martinez went 18-6 with a 1.74 ERA for the Red Sox in 2000.
Gibson, Gooden, and Martinez all won the Cy Young Awards in their respective leagues those years, while Tiant finished second to the Tigers Denny McClain in 1968.
Will Jimenez join the Cy Young club? If he keeps throwing up zeroes, he’ll run away with the award.
