Around the majors for your Friday:

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – Red Sox reliever Bobby Jenks has never allowed a home run after getting ahead 0-and-2. He’s faced 245 such batters, the second most without allowing a homer since they began tracking the stat in 1988 (and the most by any active pitcher):

409 – Rob Dibble (1988-1995)
285 – Bobby Jenks (2005-2011)
280 – Lee Guetterman (1988-1996)

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – Among the 124 pitchers who have thrown at least 175 pitches this season, Milwaukee’s Chris Narveson has produced the highest percentage of swings that miss in the majors:

42.2% – Chris Narveson, MIL
35.8% – Jonathan Sanchez, SF
33.3% – Jeremy Hellickson, TB
30.9% – Daniel Hudson, ARI

The Yankees’ Phil Hughes ranks at the bottom:

 6.1% – Phil Hughes, NYY
 9.9% – Brandon McCarthy, OAK
10.1% – Charlie Morton, PIT
10.4% – Brad Penny, DET

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – Washington Nationals’ manager Jim Riggleman doesn’t mind changing pitchers in tough spots. Nationals’ relievers have inherited 36 runners already, and average of 3.0 per game. Granted that it’s early, but it’s on pace to break the record (since 1974) of 2.44 per game, set by Detroit in 1996.

Red Sox relievers have allowed only three out of 15 inherited runners to score this season (20 percent), which would be their fourth best April since ’74. All three that scored were credited to Dan Wheeler.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – The Phillies’ Placido Polanco already has 11 RBI and has not hit a home run. The all-time record for RBI in April without hitting a homer is 18, set by Bobby Higginson of the Tigers in 2004.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – David Ortiz leads the Red Sox with eight RBI, already more than Boston’s team leader had for April in two seasons since 1950:

1995 – 7 (Lee Tinsley)
1972 – 4 (Four players including Rico Petrocelli; Red Sox only played 11 April games)

Keep in mind that the 1995 squad won the AL East.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – Over 70 percent of 0-0 count pitches to the Yankees’ Mark Teixiera have been taken for a ball this season, the highest percentage in the majors (min. 25 first pitches):

70.8% – Mark Teixiera, NYY (34-of-48)
66.7% – Ryan Zimmerman, WAS (24-of-36)
63.8% – Buster Posey, SF (30-of-47)

Here are the first pitch ball percentages for Red Sox hitters so far:

36.7% – Carl Crawford (18-of-49)
36.2% – Adrian Gonzalez (17-of-47)
38.3% – Dustin Pedroia (18-of-47)
39.1% – Kevin Youkilis (18-of-46)
36.4% – David Ortiz (16-of-44)
48.7% – Jacoby Ellsbury (19-of-39)
45.5% – Marco Scutaro (15-of-33)
38.7% – JD Drew (12-of-31)
28.6% – Jarrod Saltalamacchia (8-of-28)

When digesting these percentages, keep in mind that the MLB average OPS after the first pitch is taken for a ball is .813, but it’s only .655 when the first pitch is a strike (or is put in play).

Teixiera? His OPS is 1.095 in the 34 plate appearances that go through 1-and-0 (.441 OBP with three HR) and just .599 in the 14 other times up (2-for-13 with a .241 OBP).

—————————————————————————————————————————–
* – Derek Jeter is 1-for-24 with the bases loaded since August, 2009.

—————————————————————————————————————————–

* – Thinking of going away from the “old number one” when facing the Blue Jays this weekend? Well, be careful throwing non-fastballs to:

Jose Bautista – 9-for-16 (.562) with three home runs off non-fastballs, 3-for-18 (.167) with no extra base hits and six strikeouts vs. fastballs.

JP Arencibia – 7-for-22 (.318) with five extra base hits off non-fastballs, 3-for-12 (.250) with one EBH and five strikeouts off heaters.

Bautista’s 1.792 OPS vs. non-fastballs leads the majors so far (min. 20 PA):

1.792 – Jose Bautista, TOR
1.460 – Ryan Braun, MIL
1.323 – Nelson Cruz, TEX

Oh, and I’d expect Boston’s struggling Carl Crawford to keep seeing a heavy dose of slop, as he is 2-for-21 with no walks and no EBH against non-fastballs (.190 OPS is second worst in the majors). That makes his .526 OPS against fastballs almost look good!

———————————————————————————————————–

Have a great Patriots Day weekend and maybe these two days off will help the Sox right the ship.

As always, I’d love to hear from you! Leave a comment here, shoot me an email (gmarbry@weei.com), or “tweet me” (@nuggetpalooza).

Thanks to Baseball-Reference, Brooks Baseball, and Joe Lefkowitz’ pitch f/x site for their help in putting this together.