MatchWiz

Zac Thornton

Zac Thornton — no start in 13 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
3.42
5-6 · 63 K, 1.14 WHIP
Games graded
15
this season, box-score final
Zac Thornton
PBats LThrows LNew York Mets

Last scored matchup

Zac isn't on today's slate. He was last scored 10 days ago, away at Washington Nationals on Sunday, September 27, 2026. This page refreshes with new projections as soon as he's back in a lineup.

Season line

15 starts, 5-6, 3.42 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 84.1 innings. He's struck out 63 over that span, against 18 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 left-handed

Zac is a left-hander, and that matters more for a starter than it does for most hitters. Lineups get built specifically to attack lefties — managers stack right-handed bats against them — so the lineup he draws on a given night swings his projection further than a righty's would. The model prices the actual lineup rather than a season-long rate for exactly that reason. A stacked righty lineup is the spot where his strikeout projection comes down hardest.

His last 5 starts

Zac has 23 strikeouts in 28.0 innings across his last 5 starts, a 7.4 K/9, with a 4.50 ERA over that stretch and 4 walks. 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

Zac has 63 strikeouts and 18 walks in 84.3 innings this season — 6.7 K/9 against 1.9 BB/9, a 3.5-to-1 ratio. That's strong control, and it does more for his projection than the raw strikeout number does. Walks are the fastest way to shorten a start — an arm that doesn't issue them gets deeper into games, which is what the outs and strikeout lines are really pricing.

What his floor looks like

Zac has made 15 starts this season, averaging 5.6 innings with a 3.42 ERA across them. In the 12 starts we hold detailed lines for, he got through five or more innings 11 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

Zac is averaging 5.6 innings a start across his last 8 outings, with a high of 7.0 and about 87 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

Zac hasn't started in 13 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.

His best start in the log

Zac's high-water mark was Tuesday, August 18, 2026 against SD: 7 strikeouts over 5.0 innings, 3 earned runs. One start doesn't set a projection — the model works off the blend of his recent work against the specific lineup in front of him — but it does show the ceiling when the matchup lines up.

How the model reads him

Zac's score comes from the matchup, not his reputation. The model weighs how the opposing lineup handles his handedness, how many batters he's likely to face given recent workload, the park, and the weather — then normalizes 0–100 against every other arm on the slate. How those factors are weighted is our own, and it re-tunes weekly against real outcomes. We publish the score and grade it in public; that's the half you can check.

What we'd flag

Read this page knowing what it can't do. It can't show you a line no book posted — coverage peaks around 87% for confirmed starters. It can't see a lineup change that happens after the projection publishes. And it can't tell you anything useful from one game, because the model is only measurable across a season-sized sample. For Zac specifically, he's coming off a 13-day gap.

Recent game log

DateOppIPKHERBB
Thursday, September 24@ TEX5.04421
Friday, September 18vs PHI6.04521
Saturday, September 12@ NYY7.04521
Saturday, September 5vs SF5.06761
Sunday, August 30vs HOU5.05620
Tuesday, August 25vs MIL6.04710
Tuesday, August 18vs SD5.07631
Wednesday, August 12@ ATL6.02731
Friday, August 7@ PIT5.03402
Saturday, August 1vs MIA4.72633
Monday, July 27vs ATL6.35631
Tuesday, July 21@ MIL6.02301

Zac Thornton — FAQ

Is Zac Thornton playing today?

Zac Thornton isn't in a confirmed lineup on the current slate, and was last scored on Sunday, September 27, 2026. This page updates with fresh projections as soon as he's back in one.

How has Zac Thornton been pitching lately?

Over his last 5 starts, Zac has 23 strikeouts in 28.0 innings, allowing 14 earned runs. Start-by-start detail is in the log on this page.

Why has Zac Thornton not started recently?

Zac hasn't started in 13 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 Zac Thornton'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).