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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Houston Astros Starter Lucas Harrell Deserved Better Than a No Decision Today - Bleacher Report

The Houston Astros lost to the New York Mets this afternoon, 2-1. An Astros loss is hardly a startling turn of events. Houston has lost 88 times this year against 40 wins.

Even if the Astros win the rest of their games, only 12 teams in franchise history have lost more than the current squad. With over a month to go, the 2012 Astros have a terrific chance of being the worst team in their history, topping the 106 losses of the 2011 Astros.

Today, they wasted a marvelous performance by starter Lucas Harrell. He went seven innings, let up two hits and a single earned run and struck out seven against one walk. That is good enough to win most games.

Instead he got a no decision because the Astros let up two solo home runs to Ike Davis, the last one being a walk-off ninth inning shot from Wilton Lopez.

This is a breakthrough year for the 27-year-old Harrell. He broke in as a 19-year-old, picked in the fourth round by the Chicago White Sox in 2004. He missed all of 2007 from shoulder surgery and managed to get cups of coffee in the majors with the White Sox and Astros in 2010 and 2011.

He has been in the rotation most of this season, as today was his 26th start. He has a respectable 3.92 ERA. But the most eye-popping stat he has is 10 wins.

Granted, 10 wins is not an overwhelming number. And with new stats taking control of baseball thinking, wins are discounted.

But stop and think for a moment. He has 10 wins, which means there are only 30 wins the Astros have had this season by other pitchers.

And one of those wins is not his solid seven-inning performance today.

If the Astros were a 100-win team and he had the same ratio of wins, Harrell would be a 25-game winner.

As impressive as ten wins on a 40-win team is, he deserves to be at least an 11-game winner based on today's performance.

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