Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 31, 2004
Games of the Day

The Anaheim Angels arrive in Boston today to begin a three-game series with major wild card implications. John Lackey faces Curt Schilling tonight. Lackey has had an interesting August, in that he's struck out a lot of batters (31 in 29 1/3 innings), but he's also allowed a lot of hits (40). Six of those hits have been home runs, and as a result, Lackey is sporting a 7.06 ERA for the month. Schilling is looking for his 5th win of the month, and while he hasn't always been brilliant in August, he's been extremely solid, which is all you need when your team is scoring 6.1 runs per game in the month.

The Texas Ragners head north to Minnesota to open a three-game series with the Twins, sending Ryan Drese against Kyle Lohse. The Rangers need to gain on both the Angels and Red Sox in the wild card race, so they'll be watching the scoreboard this week. Drese's record and ERA is a testament to the Rangers improved defense. He doesn't strike out many batters, but he gives up just over a hit an inning. With few walks and HR allowed, he's turned into a winner for the Rangers. Lohse is a similar pitcher, but his defense hasn't played as well behind him, and with almost twice as many HR allowed, his ERA is 2 points higher than Drese's. (DER behind Drese is .718, behind Lohse .679).

Finally, the Padres have a big test as they travel to St. Louis to face the NL's best team, the Cardinals. Brian Lawrence will oppose Woody Williams. Lawrence has been consisently good since a bad April, posting a 3.20 ERA since May 1. He hasn't gotten much help from his team however, as that only translates to a 10-8 record over that time. Williams is coming off two poor starts against Cincinnati, where he allowed 5 runs in six innings in both starts. (Actually, in each of his last four starts against the Reds, he's allowed 5 runs in six innings!)

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 11:19 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)