September 16, 2005
Games of the Day
Tim Wakefield takes the mound for the Red Sox tonight vs. Oakland's Joe Kennedy. How can Boston fans root against the patriarch? Wakefield was in full control of his knuckle ball in his last two starts, striking out 19 in 17 innings while walking just four.
There seems to be a wild card show down every day in the National League. The Phillies travel to Florida to face the Marlins tonight, both teams 1/2 game back in the wild card standings. Jon Lieber faces Brian Mohler. Lieber is 5-2 in his last eight starts with an outstanding 2.65 ERA. Moehler has not started since August 20th and pitched poorly in relief since then, posting a 6.55 ERA.
The Brewers get to play more than spoilers in the last two weeks of the season as they still have a shot at a Wild Card berth. They get to take the race into their own hands tonight as they start a weekend series with the Astros. Rick Helling came out of nowhere to post a 2-0 record and 2.40 ERA for the Brewers down the stretch. He's yet to allow a home run in 30 innings. He'll face stud or dud Roy Oswalt, coming off a dud of a performance against the Brewers last weekend.
Zach Duke will get a start in one of the Reds-Pirates games today. He's 6-0 with an ERA under 2.00. He hasn't pitched since an injury on August 23rd.
In a strange bit of scheduling, the Nationals spend the weekend in San Diego playing the Padres before returning to Washington to face the Giants. It's an all JP duel as John Patterson takes on Jake Peavy. Patterson is coming off a pounding by the Marlins, while Peavy has 77 K in 69 2/3 innings since the All-Star break.
Enjoy!
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Posted by David Pinto at
08:49 AM
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You'd think the Astros would be looking good for the weekend, with their two rivals facing each other. It may still work out well for Houston, but they have the back end of the rotation coming up after Oswalt.
Roy has generally pitched well in September and in two of his three starts against Milwaukee this year. Backe and Obermuller look like a toss-up, and the Brewers would seem to have the advantage on Sunday with Capuano.
So the realistic best for Houston appears to be a 2-1 series win over Milwaukee while neither Florida nor Philly sweep. That would give them a 1/2 game lead in the wild card on Monday.
The worst of the likely scenarios is a 1-2 series loss to Milwaukee while Florida or Philly goes 3-0. That would put the Astros 1 1/2 back on Monday. Either way, Houston gets a breather (a four-game series with Pittsburgh) after the weekend.
