June 09, 2006
Games of the Day
The Phillies and Nationals face off again tonight with Brett Myers facing Tony Armas, Jr. Myers held the Nationals to two runs, three hits and two walks in their last meeting on May 30th. He's pitched into the seventh inning in each of his last eight starts. RFK and Armas do not get along this season. Tony's been lit up for a .314 batting average and a 4.68 ERA in five starts at home. The park fits Alfonso Soriano just fine, however. He's slugging .772 there vs. .556 on the road.
The Devil Rays play the Royals tonight. It could be a fun game because these teams are so evenly matched. The pitchers favor Tampa Bay, since Mark Hendrickson opposes Mark Redman. One problem with Redman this year is that 80% of his opposition hitters are righties, and they're getting on base at a .438 clip against him. At this point, a better role for Redman would be in the bullpen as a LOOGY. Hendrickson is seeing an even higher percentage of right-handed batters, but they're hitting just .253 against the tall lefty.
Finally, a nice pitching matchup on the west coast as Ricky Nolasco takes on Chris Young. Ricky's posted a 2.38 ERA in four starts. Young's allowed just three hits and three walks in his last 16 innings, and no runs to go with it.
Enjoy!
The Nats v. Phils pitching matchup has turned bizarre. Neither pitcher has their stuff tonight after a rain delay left the field extremely wet. Lots of goofy fielding errors by the Phils, a couple by the Nats, but the real story is the implosion of Brett Myers. 6 runs in three innings before he gets pulled for a pinch-hitter in the 4th. The official scorers these days don't call nearly as many errors as they should, so he's credited with 6 earned runs when he only ought to have five. Still, with most of the genuine hits coming from the bottom of the order (even Tony Armas got a scorcher of a hit), he clearly was out of sorts.
The other interesting point is the absolutely sterling play of Nats rookie 3B Ryan Zimmerman, who continues to make his bid for Rookie of the Year. He's 2 for 2 so far, now leads all rookies in RBIs, has 9HR, and is hitting .271 in addition to his webgem-quality defensive work. I know that the people who make these decisions are whores for BA, so Prince Fielder still has a slight advantage, but I'd interested in hearing your opinion on Zimmerman, Dave.
And Zimmerman continues to impress - he's now 3 for 3 with 2 RBI, raising his average to .275.
The most exciting thing about Zimmerman's play this year is his visible improvements. He was looking foolish against breaking balls (especially on the outside corner) earlier in the season, and was striking out on a pace for 190 at one point. But he keeps making adjustments, and now he's been spraying balls all over the field, left, center, and right. (For example, tonight Zimmerman hit to each field; the most recent one was a beauty, where he fought off an ugly pitcher's pitch and lobbed into centerfield.)
