Clemson Baseball: Inside the Numbers - Notre Dame Series

An old proverb stats revenge is a dish best served cold and it took Clemson two weeks to get a bit of revenge against Coastal Carolina Tuesday at Doug Kingsmore Stadium, but how sweet it was.

Spencer Strider continued his development with 6 2/3rds innings of 2 hit, one run pitching, losing his no-hitter with one out in the 7th.  Strider's development could pay dividends in the post-season, where more than a three man rotation is needed.

The Tigers also found their power bats, as Chris Williams, Jordan Greene, Logan Davidson and Grayson Byrd all went yard in the 6-1 win.

Next up is a struggling Notre Dame team with a 12-16 record, including 4-8 in the ACC. 

Tale of the Tape

Clemson now ranks 220th (of 297) in batting average but is approaching a top 10 ranking in home runs at 1.34 per game. 

It seems like every week I'm talking about Travis Marr, but Mr. Marr was at it again on Tuesday.  He only threw an inning, but came on with two on and nobody out in the 9th and retired 3  of the 4 batters faced and now has stranded 12 of the 16 runners he's inherited on the season.

Tuesday's game was the beginning of the second half of the season, and it also marked Marr's 10th appearance of the season, covering 24 and 2/3rds innings.  His ERA of 2.92 is not outstanding, but if you only include his nine relief appearances Marr's ERA is 2.37.

Also of note, and something I've mentioned before is the reemergence of Alex Schnell.  Schnell saw the mound once in the first 22 games and has now pitched in 4 of the last 6 contests.  Part of this may have to do with Mat Clark getting hit with a line drive, but even before that Schnell was back to being part of the pen - the part that sees game action.

Pitching

Leading Off

In the current five game winning streak, Clemson pitchers have retired 78% of opponent batters leading off innings.  That's good stuff and a recipe for holding opponents to 0 or single run innings and wins.

Homers, homers everywhere

After the four homer game Tuesday, the Tigers are averaging 1.34 home runs per game, up about 12% over last season's total (1.17).  It remains to be seen if the Tigers can maintain that pace with the back half of the ACC season being spent mostly on the road.

Batting

Quality At Bats

This metric is calculated different ways by different teams and at times can be subjective depending on who is measuring the at-bat.  The goal was to capture as much data as possible to better understand decisions made by the coaching staff.

Defense

Tuesday's game was clean error-wise and included a fantastic catch at the centerfield wall by Drew Wharton.  On the other hand, Seth Beer kicked around a single to right, but the Tigers ended up throwing out a wandering runner and Beer wasn't charged an error. There was also a fly to left that Robert Jolly made interesting before making a basket catch and visibly exhaling just like I did on the couch. 

Actual vs. Expected Record

The Tigers have pushed their expected record to 41-15 and at the current pace would certainly be in consideration for a top 8 seed.

Resume 

Coastal added a top 50 RPI win to the Tigers resume, and quietly Dallas Baptist and Louisville have moved into the top 50 in RPI, giving Clemson 9 wins over top 50 RPI teams. 

Upcoming Schedule

Don't look now, but the highs expected in Indiana for the Friday-Sunday series are forecasted as 34, 29 and 37 respectively. 

*Baseball resume information via WarrenNolan.com.