they require more pitches than other types of outs if you're pitching well and getting outs, a high strikeout start is going to typically take more pitches than otherwise obviously, if you're not pitching well and not getting outs, and giving up lots of hits and runs, that is not going to result in a low pitch count either He's been pretty darn efficient with the pitch count, anyway. 99 in 7 innings is an average of 14.1 per inning. Anything less than 15 is really solid. The lowest average on the season of any qualified starter this season is 14.3 for Nova. In a playoff game, he gives you 8 scoreless on 113 pitches and you hand the ball over to Chapman. Can't ask for much more than that. Yeah this is true. I guess thinking about it, with the artificial 100 pitch count ceiling we've had recently, 7 innings is pretty good. Even 2015 God Mode Jake had plenty of 7 inning outings.