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Yeah that 5.60 era and the 25 hits given up in 16 innings has shown that he's real good in October, don't it?
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The 5.60 ERA is misleading. Throw out the first playoff start of his career against a potent Yankee offense, and he has a 3.55 ERA. For a fourth starter in the playoffs, you can do a lot worse than a groundball pitcher with a sub-4 ERA. Everyone seems to struggle against the Yankees so it's hard to take those numbers into account when measuring a pitcher's ability. Derek Lowe was another sinkerballer with October success (notwithstanding his numbers against teams from New York.)
You're going to give up a bunch of singles when you're a groundball hurler who pitches to contact but you're also going to induce a lot of double plays (and avoid homeruns) which helps compensate for the higher hit total.