Since then, however, it has stabilized, entering Bard's latest start with the third-best starters' ERA in the American League (3.99), while going 13-6 and totaling the second-most innings in the AL (140) as a group.
This is really the most important consideration. Obviously our SP sucked for the first 30 games or so. But it has come around. The key is for the SP to keep improving and be consistently good from here on out, not what they did before, because even though they were horrible early on, we are still in the race. Our competition failed to bury us when they had the opportunity to do it.