When old farts like Pedro Astacio and Hideo Nomo shut you down, you gotta wonder. So I wondered. And I noticed something interesting.

The A’s median runs scored is 2.5. In 7 games, they’ve scored two or fewer runs, and in 7 games three or more runs.

Age of the opposing starting pitchers when they’ve scored:
Above median: 23, 24, 24, 26, 26, 26, 31
Below median: 28, 28, 29, 30, 31, 34, 36

In other words, the veteran starters are all completely shutting the A’s down. On the other hand, the A’s are feasting on youngsters.

The only exception to this pattern is last night’s game, where they beat Chan Ho Park.

The correlation between runs and age isn’t quite statistically significant (-0.579, thanks Mike), but it’s not nothing, either. So let’s watch this, for kicks. Here are the A’s upcoming opponent pitchers:

Wed vs. Mariners, Joel Piniero, age 26
Thu vs. Mariners, Ryan Franklin, age 32
Fri vs. Angels, John Lackey, age 26
Sat vs. Angels, Kelvim Escobar, age 29
Sun vs. Angels, Paul Byrd, age 34

If it holds up over the weekend, we’ll continue the fun on Monday, and start making up theories out of thin air. Mark your calendars…