It was a season to forget for the Yankees, but there were some memorable pitching performances nonetheless. In fact, two of the top five individual outings per game score in the majors this year belonged to the Bombers. Game score, the brainchild of Sabermetrics pioneer Bill James, is a statistic that attempts to distill the quality of a start into a single number; 50 is approximately average. Game score relies on innings pitched, strikeouts, walks, hits, and runs (earned and unearned). Let’s review the Yankees’ top five starts from 2023 per this metric.
5. Tie, GS of 80: Domingo Germán (5/1) and Gerrit Cole (9/10)
To give you an idea of how pitchers can achieve the same game score in a pair of different ways, Cole achieved his 80 in a nine-strikeout, seven-inning outing while Germán notched his in 8.