Tyler Anderson had another fantastic outing as the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the New York Mets, 6-1, led by the veteran southpaw’s six shutout innings.
It was Anderson’s 10th appearance of the season (eight starts), and he lowered his ERA to 2.59 while picking up a seventh win. Anderson now holds a record of 7-0, and perhaps what is most impressive is he has issued just six walks in his 55.2 innings pitched.
With those stats, he has made some history according to Stats LLC, becoming the only MLB pitcher in the modern era to go 7-0 or better with fewer than seven walks over his first 10 appearances of a season.
“He was just, once again, so consistent,” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts said after the game. “He pitched, he competed, made pitches when he needed to, kept those guys off balance. I could have squeezed another [inning] out of him, but where our bullpen was at, I felt good about that.
“So just another outstanding outing.”
Anderson has also thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings, but he said he isn’t focused on the stats and he’s just trying to execute his pitches. He also feels some of his success has come from a bit of luck, even though he also recognizes he’s making the pitches he needs to.
“I don’t know if that’s the case,” Anderson said when asked if this is the most consistent he’s been at the Major League level. “I think sometimes it’s just guys hit balls at guys and instead some balls fall. But overall, I feel pretty good right now and my body feels pretty good.
“We’re doing a good job getting ahead and game planning on guys.”
Although Anderson is 7-0, he does have the Dodgers’ offense to party thank for that after he gave up seven runs to the Philadelphia Phillies on May 12. It was his only poor outing of the season, and he has given up no more than two runs in any other outing.
Anderson rewarding Dodgers’ trust in him
The Dodgers signed Anderson late in the offseason, partly due to the MLB lockout, but they brought the career starter in when they already had five starting pitchers ahead of him.
“Yeah, for me, I’ve said before, I just wanted to come here and be on a team that’s going to win and do whatever I could to help win,” Anderson said. “Whether I was starting, bullpen, or whatever. Just kind of put all selfishness aside and try to be the best team guy to go and try to give us a chance whatever my role is.
The 32-year-old is having the best season of his career, and while that may have something to do with the Dodgers’ coaching staff, he said they didn’t change much of what he’s doing and they are just putting their trust in him.
“In terms of the staff and stuff we’ve done, we haven’t really changed a whole lot,” Anderson said. “Really, I just feel like they just had a lot of trust in me and what I do and the pitches I throw and really been reassuring to kind of trust yourself and go out there and execute.”
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