Before hosting the Colorado Rockies on Sunday afternoon, the Miami Marlins announced that left-hander Justin Nicolino had been optioned down to their Triple-A affiliate. Paul Clemens pitched in his place, lasting five innings as the Fish fell to Colorado at home, 5-3.
There was a different name on the back of the uniform, but he delivered a familiar result. Before the demotion, Nicolino had been a metronome of mediocrity from that spot in the rotation.
Bill James’ Game Score statistic helps us quantify this. It’s a point system used to rate starting pitching performances that assigns positive values to innings pitched and strikeouts, while penalizing for each run, hit and walk allowed.