Philip Humber threw a perfect game on April 21 of last year, but the degree to which he’s fallen apart since then is amazing.
Humber, who was claimed off waivers by the Astros from the White Sox in November, has thrown 111 innings and faced 523 batters since the perfect game. During that time he has a 7.52 ERA.
That includes a 7.39 ERA in 88 post-perfect game innings for the White Sox last season and a 7.99 ERA in 24 innings for the Astros this season. Humber has started five games for Houston, going 0-5 while allowing a league-high 21 runs and a .346 opponents’ batting average.
The obvious thing to say here is that Humber probably doesn’t belong in the big leagues right now, but I’m more fascinated by the whole situation and how a decent back-of-the-rotation starter can go from the peak of his professional career to immediately being completely unable to do his job.
