May 21, 2005
Games of the Day
It's tough to pick contests today, but I'll start with Washington at Toronto as Tony Armas, Jr. faces Roy Halladay. (Shouldn't MLB have changed the schedule to make Baltimore face Washington? And they could have send the Phillies against Toronto, since the Phillies were briefly called the Blue Jays and the two teams did meet in the World Series.)
Armas has pitched okay since coming off the DL. His strikeouts have not returned yet, however. Halladay has been up and down this season; six good starts, three poor ones. He has been in control, however, only walking 11 in 69 innings.
The Diamondbacks and Tigers look evenly matched today as Shawn Estes faces Nate Robertson. Estes usually needs a lot of bullpen help as he's usually has thrown over 90 pitches by the end of the 6th inning. Nate Robertson has been a victim of his defense this season. He's given up 10 unearned runs so far in 2005. It a big reason he has a good ERA but a poor record.
Enjoy!
Posted by David Pinto at
09:53 AM
|
Matchups
|
TrackBack (0)
I thouht Philly-Toronto would be a good matchup, too. But they set the schedule before they moved the Expos. And how about Detroit-Pittsburgh as a geographical matchup? You could leave Arizona and Colorado to face each other in the NL-only game.
I agree they really missed an opportunity to fuel a great young rivalry between the Nats and O's. With how close geographically they are and the big stink the O's ownership had about the move, MLB really missed the boat. The BAL v WAS rivalry should be one for years to come that will be on par with NYY v NYM, CHC v CHW, OAK v SF and LAAOA v LAD.
re: philly-toronto rivalry
dear dave & web blogging nation:
The philly-toronto rivalry is a lot deeper than the 1993 world series. As most you might recall, there used to be a professional hockey league called the NHL, and just about every year Toronto Maple Leafs coached by ex-Flyer Pat Quinn hit the Philadelphia Flyers in the playoffs. This has been a big rivalry for over 30 years, and especially the past three years.
I ran into a few fellas from Toronto at a conference here in Philly the other week and they could not stop talking about the Philly-Toronto hockey series. They really hate Philly in Toronto; there's a real rivalry there. They also remember the Joe Carter HR with glee, the 1993 World Series is very much well-remembered, but they also respected the Phillies as worthy opponents who gave Toronto a real run for their money.
In short, Toronto, with its 4 millions of people, and Philly, with its 2 millions and 2 more millions of metropolitan population, have a long and storied rivalry.
This doesn't count the Sixers-Toronto Basketball series of 2001 where Vince Carter and Allan Iverson took turns scoring 50 points a game as the series went to 7 games and Game 7 was a one point game as Carter missed the last shot at the buzzer.
Absolutely, Toronto and Philly have history.
Having said that, Baltimore and Philly have some history too, given the 83 world series, but mostly what you get is a lot of Philly fans travelling south to buy tickets in Camden Yards. About 10,000 fans in the Park were Philly fans.
Missing a chance to pit DC v. Baltimore, and perhaps to honor some Negro League players and have the president or some White House people there, was a good example of why Baseball is facing steroid legislation instead of drawing 3 million fans at every ballpark and being the national game.
--Arthur John Kyriazis