For sure, they could have lost 1-0. But the Brewers' win expectancy was already 91.2% when Rosso entered the game. It reached 98.2% at 6-0. And when you go down 3-0 against a good pitcher bats at least seem to get quieter. And also you pitch someone like Ramon Rosso because you only have a 10% chance of winning.
And funny you mention quality starts, I was thinking about that stat today while reading the Inquirer story on the game.
Nolaâs season ERA increased to 4.57, the sixth-highest among qualified starters.
It's always been a flawed stat, but these days it seems a "quality starter" with a 4.50 ERA would not even be average, and the pitchers who are worse than Nola's been are the guys getting knocked out of games or losing their rotation spots (we have three of those, so we certainly know what it looks like).
It would be great if Nola could join Wheeler in helping the Phillies to win the occasional 3-2 game, but that is obviously not what the formula has been for the past five weeks, or the past two years really. Score 5-7 runs is pretty much it.
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