It’s the 2021 season and it’s a 162-game season, at the same time, there is no universal DH rule in this season and pitchers have to hit in the National League. At the beginning of the 2021 season, any pitchers are surprisingly good at hitting?
Two-time Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom already made two solid starts in the 2021 season. In 14 innings pitched, deGrom threw 21 strikeouts while only giving up 2 walks and 1 run. Unfortunately, deGrom did not get run support from the Mets offense and he’s patiently looking for his first win of the season. But, deGrom tried to help himself, he went 3-for-5 with 1 RBI so far. deGrom is currently hitting .600.
Meanwhile, we can see that four pitchers each have two hits. Three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw is a great pitcher and there’s no doubt that he will become a Hall of Famer. When batting, Kershaw is not an easy out. He collects 2 hits so far this season.
JT Brubaker made 2 starts so far and in these two games, he has a hit in each game. Also, Luke Weaver collects a hit in each of his first two starts in 2021.
Zack Wheeler’s second season with the Phillies has been good so far. In his first two outings, Wheeler tossed 11.2 innings with 14 strikeouts and 4 walks. At the same time, Wheeler has collected two hits and one was a double.
Two hits or three hits don’t seem to be huge in a long baseball season. However, some players such as Hunter Dozier and former All-Star Matt Carpenter already have more than 10 at bats, but they are still hitless.
Trevor Bauer didn’t have too many opportunities to hit because he has spent most of his career in the American League and there was a universal DH rule last year. In his career so far, he only has 4 hits. You probably don’t expect him to do much when he’s batting. In this season, Bauer wears the Dodger uniform and is good at executing the manager’s decision. He already successfully bunted twice so far.
Anthony DeSclafani has been in the National League since 2014 and he has 27 hits, including one home run. He’s pretty solid in the first two starts this season, but he doesn’t have a hit yet. However, he has two sacrifice bunts.
Additionally, 15 pitchers each have one sacrifice bunt this season thus far.
Well, Shohei Ohtani is a two-way player, so he’s not in the chart. Since there is no universal DH rule in the 2021 season, pitchers have to hit at National League ballparks. We usually don’t expect to see a pitcher hit very well and it’s always bad to see a pitcher get injured at the plate. Nonetheless, some pitchers provide some excitement to fans because they try hard to have a hit and they don’t want to be a free out. deGrom and Kershaw are both very solid on the mound, in the meantime, they also work hard at the plate and try to do damage. Several pitchers already have a hit in the 2021 season, however, none of them has a home run yet. Which pitcher will hit a home run in 2021? Let’s wait and see. But before that, we shall see many pitchers bunt.
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