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It's been an interesting start to 2017 for Francisco Liriano, in some ways Mark Buehrle's 2013 first half on steroids. After a disasterous debut against the Rays, his ERA sat at an unseemly 135.00. After a third consequence solid start since then last night, totaling four earned runs in 17.1 innings, Liriano has lowered that to a respectable 4.58 ERA. Here's what his 2017 progression looks like in chart form:
That early season spike really distorts the scale, so below is the same chart but with a logarithmic scale instead (and without the background shading to separate starts).
Here the descent looks a lot more gradual, except for the little spike when he allowed a couple runs in his second start.