The 33-year-old Chen, pitching for his 10th major league team in his 12th big league season, shut out the playoff-bound Rays on two hits while walking two and striking out a season-high seven last night. It was his 12th win, one shy of the career high he set in 2005 with the Orioles. This is the same guy who went three years and ten months between major league wins, enduring a 13-game losing streak and an entire season out of the bigs in between. He's now 12-7 with a 4.17 ERA for a Royals club that is 67-93 overall with a 5.01 team ERA. But most remarkable of all, last night's gem was his first career shutout. It came in his 144th career start.
Bruce Chen has more lives than a cat.
For some odd reason, I have always rooted for Bruce Chen. Maybe it's the incongruous name. Maybe it's the fact that he is built more like an accountant than a pitcher. Maybe it is the fact that he just keeps coming back. I simply like the man and his tenacity.
ReplyDeleteMax - Yeah, plus Leo Mazzone seemed to hate him, which makes him alright in my book.
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