Fernando Rodney has the lowest ERA in baseball history

By Oct 2, 2012, 11:51 AM EDT
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Fernando Rodney had to go and ruin his perfect statistical match with Dennis Eckersley’s historic 1990 season by throwing a scoreless inning last night, moving past Eckersley for the best ERA of all time among pitchers with 50-plus innings.

Technically they both still have a 0.61 ERA, but Rodney has now allowed five earned runs in 74.1 innings while Eckersley allowed five earned runs in 73.1 innings. So it’s officially Rodney at 0.605 and Eckersley at 0.614.

Here’s what the rest of the leaderboard now looks like:

                     YEAR       IP      ERA
Fernando Rodney      2012     74.1     0.61
Dennis Eckersley     1990     73.1     0.61
Rob Murphy           1986     50.1     0.72
Earl Hamilton        1918     54.0     0.83
Nick Maddox          1907     54.0     0.83

What a weird list and what a crazy season at age 35 for Rodney, who prior to this season had posted an ERA worse than 4.00 in five straight years and had more walks than strikeouts in 2011.

Alvarez’s bases-clearing double sends Astros past White Sox

Associated PressApr 1, 2023, 12:25 AM EDT
Erik Williams-USA TODAY Sports
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HOUSTON – Yordan Alvarez hit a go-ahead three-run double in the seventh inning, and the Houston Astros rallied past the Chicago White Sox 6-3 on Friday night for their first win of the season.

Kyle Tucker hit a two-run homer in the sixth and made a spectacular catch at the wall in the seventh to rob Andrew Benintendi of extra bases and keep the World Series champion Astros within one run.

Eloy Jimenez hit two RBI doubles for the White Sox, both off Astros starter Cristian Javier.

Jimenez’s first double scored Tim Anderson in the first inning. In the sixth, Javier gave up three straight doubles to Benintendi, Jimenez and Joan Moncada to make it 3-0 and end his night.

White Sox reliever Kendall Graveman (0-1) loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh on two walks and a single. Jake Diekman came on and gave up Alvarez’s double to deep left-center, a drive that just eluded Luis Robert Jr. and bounced off the wall, clearing the bases.

Four Astros relievers each worked one scoreless inning. Seth Martinez (1-0) got the win and Rafael Montero handled the ninth for his first save.

Chicago starter Lance Lynn allowed two runs in 5 2/3 innings.

ALL IN A DAY’S REST

White Sox INF Andrew Vaughn, who hit a go-ahead two-run double in Thursday’s season-opening win, did not play. Vaughn experienced lower back issues during spring training. Gavin Sheets started at first base.

HOMETOWN HIT

Astros outfielder Corey Yulks, a Houston-area native, singled in his first at-bat and finished 1-for-4 in his major league debut.

PUT A RING ON IT

Astros owner Jim Crane and his wife, Whitney, presented the team and staff with their 2022 World Series rings in a pregame ceremony.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Astros: LHP Blake Taylor, who is on the 15-day injured list with a left elbow strain, began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Sugar Land.

UP NEXT

The four-game season-opening series continues Saturday when Houston’s Jose Urquidy faces Chicago’s Lucas Giolito.