A.J. Griffin walked none, struck out eight, and allowed two home runs as the Athletics beat the Astros 4-3 Wednesday afternoon. That gives Griffin 23 home runs and 29 walks on the season, the two stats close to parity. In the division era (1969 on), 21 pitchers had HR/BB ratios of one or more (min 162 IP). The number of pitchers accomplishing this rose a great deal after 2002, with 14 such seasons.

Having walks and strikeouts in parity is always bad. Either you’re walking too many batters or striking out too few. But home runs and walks can go either way. Bronson Arroyo giving up 46 homer and 45 walks in 2011 was poor. Curt Schilling giving up 28 of each in 2006 was pretty good. Carlos Silva did okay giving up 25 homers and just nine walks in 2005. So if the walks are low, like they are for Griffin, the home runs are mostly solo shots, and a pitcher can survive them. Seventeen of the 23 allow by A.J. this year were of the solo variety.