Dan Wheeler Provides Two Types of History

I hate to pick out the bad from a game that was so exciting.  Though, come to think of it, the game wouldn't have been so exciting were it not for the efforts of Dan Wheeler.  So maybe instead of telling you what Wheeler is doing wrong I should be thanking him...Nah, the former is much more fun than the latter.

Before entering tonight's game Wheeler actually hadn't allowed a run in his last six appearances, though those totaled only 3.2 innings pitched.  Hell, he'd only allowed one hit over that span.  As we can see now, tonight would be different and Wheeler would come crashing back down to Earth after those magical 3.2IP.  Despite having a K/9 of 9.64 that would be the second best of his career if he could maintain it, and a BB/9 of 1.93 that would be the best of his career, Wheeler's other numbers suggest he's in for more hard times.  His LD and FB percentages are up from last season while his GB percentage is down.  His fastball velocity is down, which has to be one of the main reasons he's allowed four home runs in 10IP.

Everyone thought Wheeler would regress after a 2008 season that saw his BABIP, WHIP, and AVG against at video-game levels, but if this is the Dan Wheeler we can expect the rest of the season, color me terrified. 

A congratulations goes out to Brian Shouse who tonight picked up his first win as a Ray...well sort of.  Brian Shouse goes down in the record books as the winner of this game.  How you may ask, since Shouse was not in the game when the Rays took the lead?  Rule 10.17(c), that's how.  The Rule states the following(h/t to Marc Lancaster):

The official scorer generally should, but is not required to, consider the appearance of a relief pitcher to be ineffective and brief if such relief pitcher pitches less than one inning and allows two or more earned runs to score (even if such runs are charged to a previous pitcher). Rule 10.17(b) Comment provides guidance on choosing the winning pitcher from among several succeeding relief pitchers.

Even though Wheeler did pitch a full inning, his ineffectiveness is without question.  Brian Shouse got two big outs in the bottom of the 9th, so I'm glad he could snake a victory away from Cardiac Dan.  Thanks to Wheeler we're all now aware of an obscure, yet fun rule, and we got to see Mariano Rivera give up back to back home runs for the first time in his Hall of Fame career.  Maybe we should be thanking him afterall.