Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 07, 2004
Games of the Day

A number of good pitching matchups today. The first has Jaret Wright of the Braves visiting the Montreal Expos and Livan Hernandez in San Juan. Wright is turning out to be another successful reclaimation project by the Braves. Every month this season his innings have gone up and his walks have gone down. It's good to see him return to being an effective starter. Hernandez has been an innings eater for the Expos, racking up 133 2/3 IP and four complete games to lead the NL in both categories. He has a 2.82 ERA in three starts in San Juan this season.

The Pirates winning streak is over, but that doesn't mean they're no longer an interesting team. Oliver Perez takes the mound against Carl Pavano in Miami. Perez leads the NL in K per 9 at over 11, almost a full strikeout ahead of Randy Johnson. Interestingly, Pavano has a better ERA and W-L on the road, despite the fact that he has better strikeout and walk numbers at home. For some reason, he's giving up more hits in Pro-Player Stadium.

The Brewers go for a sweep of the Cubs today, a sweep that would put them one game out of the wild card. Carlos Zambrano faces Doug Davis. Davis has done a real good job this year of keeping opponents' 3-4 hitters in check; he's held them to a combined .358 slugging percentage with 1 HR. Zambrano's been even better, allowing a .200 slugging percentage to the 3-4 hitters.

With only 59 innings, Jake Peavy isn't leading the NL in ERA, but his 1.98 mark is impressive. He's striking out 9 batter per 9 and has allowed only 3 HR. He'll host Roy Oswalt of the Houston Astros in San Diego tonight. Oswalt has only walked 21 batters this season, and is fourth in the NL in fewest walks per 9. He has, however, given up a lot of hits, and is tied for the NL lead with 30 doubles allowed. Luckily for him, SD is not a doubling team.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 12:13 PM | Games | TrackBack (0)