Oliver Perez: Worst Game 7 Starter Ever?

Game Seven is supposed to be the ultimate showcase for the game's best players. Seventh games are supposed to be started by Sandy Koufax ... Bob Gibson ... Roger Clemens ... Pedro Martinez. Unfortunately, tonight's game between the New York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals features the worst game seven pitching match-up in baseball history.

It's easy to forget that in 2004, Oliver Perez was a 22-year-old stud who struck out nearly 11 batters per nine innings while compiling a 2.98 ERA (6th best in the NL). Two short years later, Perez is the worst pitcher who's ever started a game seven ... by a reasonably wide margin. A harsh assessment ... until you examine the facts.

This season, Perez went 3-13 with a 6.55 ERA. There was only one pitcher in baseball who pitched more than 100 innings with a worse ERA than Perez (Brian Moehler's 6.57 ERA with Florida). In Game 4 of this series, Perez gave up five earned runs - including three homers - in 5 2/3 innings. So why does he get the ball with the Mets season on the line? Primarily because injuries to Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez leave manager Willie Randolph with few options (though he'd better have Darren Oliver, Steve Trachsel and Aaron Heilman ready to go at the absolute first sign of trouble tonight).

The good news for the Mets is that Cardinals starter Jeff Suppan has the second worst career ERA (4.60) among game seven starters in baseball history. [In Suppan's defense, in seven career post-season starts, he's 3-3 with a 3.07 ERA over 41 innings, including eight innings of shutout ball in game three against the Mets.] The bad news for the Mets is that the worst career ERA among game seven starters in baseball history belongs to - you guessed it - Oliver Perez (4.67).