Folks, the Texas Tech Red Raiders have managed to throw more shutouts than some Big 12 teams have wins on the season. Right now, the Red Raiders have managed to throw 13 shutouts in 36 games so far this season. That’s good enough to lead the Big 12 by two shutouts.
The next closest pitching staff would be the Utah Utes, who have proven to be pretty proficient in limiting the damage other teams are capable of. Following Utah is another former Pac-12 team, the Arizona Wildcats, with nine so far this season.
For Texas Tech, this is over one-third of the games that they’ve played. Roughly one in every three games that Texas Tech gets to play ends up being a shutout in favor of the Red Raiders. That’s hard to fully contextualize.
Texas Tech’s pitching staff currently leads the Big 12 as the Red Raiders have thrown 13 shutouts so far this season
Let’s go ahead and see how the rest of the Big 12 compares to the Red Raiders with Texas Tech setting the standard in the conference.
- Texas Tech Red Raiders - 13 shutouts
- Utah Utes - 11 shutouts
- Arizona Wildcats - 9 shutouts
- Oklahoma State Cowgirls - 7 shutouts
- UCF Knights - 4 shutouts
- Kansas Jayhawks - 3 shutouts
- Baylor Bears - 3 shutouts
- Houston Cougars - 3 shutouts
- Iowa State Cyclones - 2 shutouts
- Arizona State Sun Devils - 0 shutouts
- BYU Cougars - 0 shutouts
The success that Texas Tech is having here speaks to a couple of different things. There’s the pitching dominance, sure. They’re going to get the bulk of the credit, as they should. Then there’s the reliable fielding behind the pitching staff. After that, there’s the fact that the Red Raiders are run-ruling teams left and right.
Those run-rule wins help limit the time that Texas Tech is on the field. Several of these shutout wins have been in mercy-ruled shortened games.