Roger Clemens and Mike Scott would take home the AL and NL Cy Young awards respectfully in 1986, and while that year became 24-year-old Roger’s first year of Hall of Fame worthy numbers, 31-year-old veteran Mike Scott would outperform him in various vital pitching categories. A lower ERA, lower WHIP, more strikeouts, more shutouts, in more innings pitched.
Both All-Stars, Clemens famously helped lead Boston to the 1986 World Series vs the Metropolitans. While Scott was the ace for a Houston squad that would suffer defeat in the 1986 NLCS to those said Mets. It wasn’t cause of a lack of effort from Scott in that postseason, we’ll get into that later on. What’s worthy of spotlighting first is comparing the main stat categories for pitchers between these two monsters on the mound.
| Clemens | Stat | Scott |
|---|---|---|
| 24-4 | W-L | 18-10 |
| 2.48 | ERA | 2.22 |
| 0.96 | WHIP | 0.92 |
| 238 | Strikeouts | 306 |
| 254.0 | Innings Pitched | 275.1 |
| 10 | Complete Games | 7 |
| 1 | Shutouts | 5 |
| 6.3 | H/9 | 5.9 |
| 0.7 | BB/9 | 0.6 |
| 8.6 | K/9 | 10.0 |
| 8.8 | WAR | 8.4 |
Clemens with the advantage in winning %, everything else for the most part? All Mike Scott. That is a phenomenal season. They both are, but he outshone one of the most famous seasons for a pitcher in the modern era, in the same year.
As previously mentioned, Scott’s postseason performance that year was something else as well. Managing to win the NLCS MVP despite Houston losing the series.
He would go 2-0 that series, both of them complete games, one of them a shutout. 18 innings with 19 strikeouts in the middle of them, 8 hits, one run, and a WHIP and ERA or 0.50. Filthy.
Clemens would go on to amass one of the biggest stat filling resumes of all time, and Scott’s career is nice and shiny one too. But this year, in 1986, there was no better pitcher in The Show, than Mike Scott.
