Chris Bassitt had an oddly awesome August

Chris Bassitt finished August with a 4-0 record and a 1.62 ERA in 5 starts for the New York Mets. Domination!

Well, a look at some other numbers, we see a completely different tale.

Hitters slashed .258/.307/.305 against him in the month of August. The batting average against is actually his worst of 2022 and the OBP is his second worst. Despite this, Bassitt was successful where it counts. It’s not the size of the batting average against you; it’s how you use it.

Mets pitcher Chris Bassitt flirted with danger in August and came away looking fantastic

The source of many of the troubles for Bassitt in August were how many singles he gave up. Among the 33 hits he gave up, 28 of them were singles. However, only 7 times were teams able to score. From that number, just 6 were earned.

Bassitt was apparently pitching to contact all-month-long. He had a season-low 5.9 strikeouts per nine in those 5 starts and a 1.14 WHIP—his second worst to only May.

All signs pointed toward a far worse result for Bassitt. He wasn’t just the recipient of some superb run-support. We can see from his Jacob deGrom-esque ERA that he was keeping runners away from home plate. Batters were able to pepper him for plenty of hits but it was a lack of home runs that may have led to his biggest success of the month.

Bassitt has given up 15 home runs this season. Not a single batter managed to put one over the outfield wall versus him in August. This was the difference. In fact, the Washington Nationals, Cincinnati Reds, and Philadelphia Phillies combined to only score one run against him in his first 20 innings of work last month. That run was the unearned run against him.

August helped turn Bassitt’s season around, too. He went from a 7-7 season with a 3.83 ERA to an 11-7 record with a 3.34 ERA. The Mets have won the last six times he started. With Carlos Carrasco out and Taijuan Walker dealing with some questionable health problems popping up every so often, it’s good to know Bassitt, even when not at his absolute best, is still, somehow, at his absolute best.