The chart below begins our annual Day v. Night game survey of pitchers, done early in the season when a few more day games are played.. The NL is covered this week, and we will get the AL in a few days.

The best ERAs in day games, of those with at least 10 daytime starts, belong to Billingsley, PMartinez, Santana, Looper, and CYoung who are all below 3.00 in daytime. Smoltz, Gorzelanny, Carpemnter and a few others are close to 3.00.

Jake Peavy at 2.75 has the best ERA in night games, followed by Oswalt and the injured Cardinal ace Carpenter at sub-.300. Webb, Santana and Hamels are also around the 3.00 level.

Seven starters have started at least 20 wins in the last three seasons, headed by 31 by Zambrano of the Cubs.

Nine hurlers have started at least 40 wins: led by Oswalt, who is 48-26 after dark.

The NL three-year ERA was about the same, day or night. But some pitchers show big ERA differences.

Those better in Day Games: DDavis, Hill (Chi), Marquis, Francis, Redman, Loaiza, PMartinez, Looper, Lohse, CYoung and Chico fall into this category.

Many pitchers are better at night, and we think young hard-throwers like Peavy (4.61 day, 2.75 night) or Hamels (5.06 and 3.10) are most apt to thrive at night.

But they are not the only ones. Others include: Glavine, KWells, Penny, Duke, Maholm, Mulder, OPerez(Was), most in another age or pitching type.

Starting time seemed to influence the home field advantage in the National League last year. The overall .539 home team win percentage became .570 (225-170) in day games. At night, NL teams were only .519 (474-440).

Day Games averaged 9.6 total runs in the NL last season, while the scoring was at 9.3 runs in nighttime. There were a few more overs in NL day games, about 53% of the time, where just under 51% of night games went under.

This chart lists starting pitchers records in Day & Night games, team W-L in starts only, 2004-2006, and ERA. No relief work is included. Some pitchers have changed team or league in the three-year period.