Since 2006, Zach Duke's career has been pretty disappointing. After a stellar rookie year in 2005 when he went 8-2 with an ERA of under 2.00, Duke has mostly been cannon fodder for the National League. Last night he came into his start against the Giants with a 4-13 record and a 5.14 ERA, allowing opponents an OPS of .839 against him. Against the Giants, he threw a complete game shutout, then got some interesting news when he got off the field. There had been a small earthquake during the game. Since the start of the 2006 season, Duke is 17-36 with a 5.03 ERA and a 1.60 WHIP in games that he started with no earthquakes taking place. In games started that did experience an earthquake, he's undefeated with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.89 WHIP. Perhaps you would argue that his 9-inning "earthquake" sample size is far too small when compared to his 472-inning "non-earthquake" sample size, but to that I would respond to you, "it's clearly not working the other way, so he might as well try to pitch through as many earthquakes as possible."Zach Duke pitched a six-hit shutout to push the Pirates past the San Francisco Giants, 7-0, last night, and he did so through a light earthquake that registered 4.0 on the Richter Scale and was felt by many of the 31,133 at AT&T Park. It struck just before midnight Eastern time, coming with two outs in the sixth inning as Duke fielded an Emmanuel Burriss squibber to the right of the mound.
"Really?" Duke said, informed of this minutes afterward. "I had no idea."
