Whoever Gets to 15 Wins First Might Be the More Underrated

Jarrod Washburn and Roy Halladay, both with 14 wins on the year, faced off tonight in Toronto. The game lived up to expectations ending in a 1-0 win for Anaheim. Both of these guys have been tremendous this year but seem to get no recognition for it. Here's a comparison of their performances tonight:

                  IP  H R ER BB SO HR  PC-ST  ERA 
Washburn (W, 15-3) 8  3 0  0  0  5  0  87-63  2.97 
Halladay (L, 14-5) 8  9 1  1  1  6  1 116-76  2.67 
Total             16 12 1  1  1 11  1 203-139 

Washburn was a little better giving up six fewer hits and using nearly thirty fewer pitches in the same number of innings, and nearly three-quarters of them for strikes. Oddly Halladay, who had only given 7 home runs to Washburn's 16, lost on a fourth-inning, lead-off home run by David Eckstein. It was only Eckstein's seventh homer of the season.