If memory serves Wells Aug 92, Doc Apr 99/00, and Carpenter sometime in 02. I wonder where Sanchez's month ranks?
Here you go, christaylor!
So: was Aaron Sanchez' performance this June the worst month ever by a Blue Jays starter?
Could be, could be. I went scooting through the archives looking for every Jays pitcher who had made at least 3 starts in a calendar month and posted an ERA of 9.00 or higher while doing so. (This occasionally involved digging into the actual Game Logs, because it turns out that when you give up that many runs, they sometimes send you to the bullpen. Imagine that.)
I found 24 such months, and here they are, sorted by ERA. The worst shall be first:
Pitcher Month Year W L ERA G GS CG SHO IP H R ER HR BB SO
Williams Aug 1983 1 1 18.00 3 3 0 0 6 12 12 12 5 6 3
Drabek Jun 2011 1 2 15.30 3 3 0 0 10 19 17 17 3 10 6
Hutchison Sep 2015 0 3 13.89 3 3 0 0 9.1 19 15 15 6 3 6
Kucek Aug 1980 0 3 13.83 5 5 0 0 13.2 29 24 21 4 9 8
Wells Aug 1992 1 4 12.58 5 5 0 0 24.1 40 37 34 6 15 9
Carpenter Jul 2000 1 4 12.43 5 5 0 0 25.1 41 35 35 8 17 16
Sanchez Jun 2019 0 6 12.00 6 6 0 0 27 44 37 36 7 19 16
Mills Aug 2011 1 1 11.91 3 3 0 0 11.1 15 15 15 3 9 13
Key Apr 1986 0 1 11.85 4 4 0 0 13.2 20 18 18 1 7 7
Morris Apr 1993 1 3 11.51 5 5 0 0 22.2 43 32 29 6 14 15
Stottlemyre Jul 1988 0 1 10.91 4 4 0 0 15.2 25 20 19 5 8 11
Guzman May 1995 0 1 10.66 3 3 0 0 12.2 19 15 15 2 13 4
Moore Jul 1980 0 1 10.61 3 3 0 0 9.1 14 12 11 1 4 4
Halladay Apr 2000 2 4 10.57 6 6 0 0 30.2 48 36 36 6 16 16
Towers Apr 2006 0 5 10.45 5 5 0 0 20.2 38 25 24 6 9 12
J.Musselman Apr 1989 0 1 10.29 3 3 0 0 7 9 10 8 0 8 2
McGowan Aug 2005 1 2 9.75 5 5 0 0 24 35 28 26 5 11 15
Hanson Jul 1996 1 3 9.51 5 5 0 0 23.2 34 26 25 5 15 11
Darwin May 1995 1 4 9.47 5 5 0 0 25.2 39 27 27 5 10 12
Richmond Sep 2008 2 4 9.46 7 7 0 0 32.1 45 35 34 10 20 20
Parris Aug 2002 1 3 9.35 5 5 0 0 26 43 27 27 9 12 14
Byrd Sep 1987 0 5 9.30 5 5 1 0 20.1 30 22 21 3 14 9
Estrada Jun 2017 0 4 9.11 6 6 0 0 27.2 42 28 28 6 18 27
Stieb Jun 1992 0 2 9.00 5 5 0 0 23 29 23 23 3 15 12
I was honestly expecting to find a few more obscurities on this list, guys who are Gone and Thoroughly Forgotten. However, I did a similarly mean-spirited project a few years back that singled out the worst seasons by Jays pitchers, an exercise that gave the world the immortal Suckage Index. Consequently, the names Jack Kucek and Jeff Byrd rang a familiar bell. And props to Byrd for being the only pitcher on this particular list to complete a start in his awful month. He lost, of course.
But I think most of these names are pretty familiar to everyone. Of the 10 pitchers who lead the franchise list in career starters, all but two are represented (take a bow, Pat Hentgen! You too, Luis Leal.) The saddest story is Dave Stieb. After 14 mostly wonderful years in the Toronto rotation, Cito Gaston banished Stieb to the bullpen after his June 29 start. He made a few appearance in relief, made two spot starts, and then his elbow ended his season in mid-August.
But Matt Williams! Him I had entirely forgotten. Well, why not? His Jays career lasted barely two weeks. He won his major league debut against the Yankees on 2 August, despite allowing 5 ER in 5 IPT. The Jays pounded out 13 runs on his behalf. If you give his numbers an intense scrute, you'll see he made 2 more starts. In which he pitched exactly 1 inning while allowing 7 earned runs. He never pitched for the Jays again after that final start in mid-August. He was back in Syracuse in 1984, and resurfaced briefly with the Rangers in 1985.
And yes, Halladay, Carpenter, and Wells all made this list. Halladay's awful month kicked off his famous Season From Hell. You're probably wondering how he went 2-4 with a 10.57 ERA. He actually pitched quite well in his first outing and deserved the win; he got the other win despite allowing 7 ER as the Jays had thoughtfully staked him to an 11-1 lead. You'll also notice that Carpenter and Wells managed to win one of their games in their particular Month from Hell. Neither did anything to deserve it - in both cases they got the W because the Jays happened to score 9 runs that day. But hey, they went five innings and left with a lead. The W is always better than the L. As some of you doubtless suspect, this was the month when Wells allowed 13 earned runs in a single game. Don't worry - the rest of his month stunk as well - remove that game and he'd still make this list with an ERA of 9.28 for the month.
Sanchez is not the first Jays starter to go 0-6 in one month - I wasn't looking but I know that Jim Clancy went 0-7 in seven September starts in 1986. The thing there is that Clancy wasn't pitching that badly at all. His ERA that month was 4.89, he lost 2-1 twice, and he lost another when the Jays were shut out.
But what Sanchez just did... it might be The One - I think the only other month that can come close to matching its awfulness is Josh Towers coming out of the gate in 2006 and completely crapping the bed. Towers lost his spot in the rotation, despite having been the team's most valuable starting pitcher the season before (only because Halladay got hurt and missed half the season, but hey!) It's been much, much longer since Sanchez did anything as useful.
