Numbers can tell lies, but the numbers don’t lie when telling the story of USC baseball and its noticeable improvements in 2023.
This team isn’t winning games in weird ways. You’re not seeing outliers or aberrations. Baseball can create stories in which teams get blown out in a number of games but still win a majority of contests. One of the most famous examples of this dynamic is the 1960 World Series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Yankees. The Pirates were crushed in three losses, losing Games 2, 3 and 6 of that series by a combined total of 35 runs. However, they won Games 1, 4, 5, and 7 by a total of seven runs. They won the series, 4-3, but were outscored over the seven games by a total of 55-27.
The Pirates didn’t have the better pitching (or hitting) in the series, but they won the close games.
Over 162 games, that would never fly, but in a seven-game series, they managed.
What is so encouraging about USC’s improved play this season under coach Andy Stankiewicz is how sustainable the Trojans’ performances are. They aren’t winning wild or crazy games, for the most part. They have won an occasional donnybrook, but most of the time, they’re simply getting good pitching. It’s not complicated or magical.
It’s just good baseball.
USC is 14-3 in its last 17 games. Of those 14 wins, 12 have involved the USC pitching staff allowing no more than three runs. This goes back to a March 12 doubleheader (Game 2) win over Stanford, a 4-1 decision.
This team isn’t reinventing the wheel. It is simply pitching well.
That’s the kind of baseball which can be maintained. USC is not playing out of its mind. It is playing the game the way it was meant to be played.
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