Joe Lemire from Sports Illustrated wrote a piece a while back detailing this very thing. He calls it baseball’s magic number but I like to look at it as the Rule of 39. [...]

Peterson asked the team’s analytics department to research the correlation of winning percentage with the number of batters faced in a game. That research, he said, found a tipping point between 38 and 39 batters faced.

—snip—

Here’s why: Since 1991 home teams that have faced fewer than 39 opposing batters in a ...

So that string across home plate on Monday? Aim for it.

“What you’re trying to present to the guys is that these are outcome numbers, but if we follow this process and pound the bottom of the strike zone, [the average is] .193,” Peterson said. “And that’s the major league data. What do you think it is in the minor leagues. I don’t have the numbers, but I would think its .125 or .150.”