First inning pitch count

Apropos of nothing, you might be interested in a little baseball data. A reader at Bill James Online recently asked how often the team that throws fewer pitches in the first inning wins the game. Our own James Gentile did the research for all games between 2002 and 2012 and found that…

{exp:list_maker}When teams threw one to five fewer pitches than the other team in the first inning, its winning percentage was .523 in those games.
When the difference was six to 10 pitches, its winning percentage was .564
11-15 pitches, .626
16-20 pitches, .672
21 or more pitches, .775 {/exp:list_maker}

Now you know.