MatchWiz

Steven Cruz

Steven Cruz — no start in 15 days. His recent work, season line, and what that gap means for any projection on him.

Last scored board
—
No game on the current slate
Season line · ERA
4.29
2-4 · 65 K, 1.26 WHIP
Games graded
56
this season, box-score final
Steven Cruz
PBats RThrows RKansas City Royals

Last scored matchup

Steven isn't on today's slate. He was last scored 14 days ago, at home against Chicago White Sox on Thursday, September 24, 2026. This page refreshes with new projections as soon as he's back in a lineup.

Season line

2 starts, 2-4, 4.29 ERA, 1.26 WHIP, 58.2 innings. He's struck out 65 over that span, against 20 walks. This is the baseline the matchup adjusts from — the model starts here and then asks what the specific lineup he's facing does to strikeout arms, how the park plays, and how deep he's likely to go.

He throws right-handed

Steven throws right-handed, which is the ordinary case and means fewer wild swings in the lineup he faces. Opposing managers aren't restacking against him the way they would a left-hander, so his projection moves more on the quality of the lineup than on its handedness. What does move it: how deep he's been going lately, and whether the lineup in front of him strikes out.

His last 5 starts

Steven has 7 strikeouts in 5.0 innings across his last 5 starts, a 12.6 K/9, with a 5.40 ERA over that stretch and 1 walk. Strikeouts are the one pitcher market where our model has found real, graded room — projected workload and the specific lineup he draws move that number more than a season-long rate does. Start-by-start detail is in the log below.

Strikeouts and control

Steven has 65 strikeouts and 20 walks in 58.7 innings this season — 10.0 K/9 against 3.1 BB/9, a 3.3-to-1 ratio. That's around league-typical control — enough to work deep when the lineup cooperates, not enough to bail him out of a bad matchup.

What his floor looks like

Steven has made 56 starts this season, averaging 1.0 innings with a 4.30 ERA across them. In the 12 starts we hold detailed lines for, he got through five or more innings 0 times. That ratio is the honest read on his floor, and it's what separates an arm worth projecting on the outs board from one whose good starts are unpredictable enough that the market prices them better than we do.

How long he goes

Steven is averaging 1.0 innings a start across his last 8 outings, with a high of 1.0 and about 17 pitches a night. He's not going deep, and that caps the strikeout and outs projections no matter how good the matchup looks — you can't strike out hitters you don't face. Expected batters faced is one of the bigger inputs to his score for exactly this reason.

A long gap since his last start

Steven hasn't started in 15 days. That's the single most useful warning on a pitcher's page, and it's the model's weakest spot. A gap that long usually means an injured-list stint, and a first start back is often on a strict pitch limit that no stat line reveals — books frequently don't post an outs line at all in that spot. Our projection is built on his healthy workload, so it will overshoot a shortened rehab start. Read any projection here with that in mind until he's stretched back out.

How the model reads him

Every arm on the slate goes through the same math, Steven included. Opposing lineup, handedness, expected batters faced, park, weather — weighted, combined, and normalized 0–100. We keep the weighting to ourselves and re-tune it weekly on real results. What we don't keep is the record: every projection here is graded against the box score at the line the market offered.

What we'd flag

Three caveats worth carrying. Not every player gets a posted line — book coverage runs to about 87% for confirmed starters, so a blank line is the market's silence, not ours. Lineup changes land late enough to strand a projection published hours earlier. And judging any of this on a single night is meaningless; the model is tuned on hundreds of settled outcomes. For Steven specifically, he's coming off a 15-day gap.

Recent game log

DateOppIPKHERBB
Wednesday, September 23vs CWS1.02100
Saturday, September 19@ PIT1.01220
Wednesday, September 16@ HOU1.03210
Friday, September 11@ BOS1.01000
Tuesday, September 8vs AZ1.00101
Monday, September 7vs AZ1.01200
Thursday, September 3vs MIA1.01000
Friday, August 28@ CLE1.02200
Tuesday, August 25@ TOR1.00320
Sunday, August 23vs DET1.02001
Friday, August 21vs DET1.31200
Wednesday, August 19vs ATH1.00220

Steven Cruz — FAQ

Is Steven Cruz playing today?

Steven Cruz isn't in a confirmed lineup on the current slate, and was last scored on Thursday, September 24, 2026. This page updates with fresh projections as soon as he's back in one.

How has Steven Cruz been pitching lately?

Over his last 5 starts, Steven has 7 strikeouts in 5.0 innings, allowing 3 earned runs. Start-by-start detail is in the log on this page.

Why has Steven Cruz not started recently?

Steven hasn't started in 15 days. We flag the gap rather than guess the cause — it usually means an injured-list stint. A first start back is often pitch-limited in a way no stat line shows, and our projection, built on his healthy workload, will run high until he's stretched back out.

Are Steven Cruz's projections betting advice?

No. Every number on this page is a research signal from a statistical model, published alongside its graded record so you can judge it yourself. The model is re-tuned weekly and can be wrong on any given day. Nothing here is a guaranteed outcome. 21+, please play responsibly (1-800-GAMBLER).

Projections are a research signal from our model, graded against real box-score results — not betting advice. 21+, please play responsibly (1-800-GAMBLER).