Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
June 11, 2006
Late Night Roundup

The Mets received their second outstanding performance from Alay Solar as he out dueled Brandon Webb for a 5-0 Mets victory. Webb allowed just one earned run over eight innings (four total) while striking out 9, but ruined his perfect record with the loss. Solar, however, tossed a two-hitter, using just 108 pitches for the complete game shutout. He's allowed 8 hits and 1 earned run in his last 16 innings.

The Mariners drubbed the Angels 12-6 in Anaheim, despite two home runs from Mike Napoli. Sagging sluggers Beltre and Sexson went deep for the Mariners, Richie's being a grand slam. Ichiro added a solo shot as part of a 3 for 6 night that raised his batting average to .367.

It was a much more typical night at Coors on Saturday as the Rockies defeated the Dodgers 12-9. What catches my eye, however, is the save by Brian Fuentes. He pitched the ninth and walked one but struck out two. That's been his MO all season, but with 31 strikeouts in 24 2/3 innings and only 13 hits allowed, he can afford the walks. The Rockies appear to have found an effective closer.

The Marlins squeaked by the Padres 2-1 last night behind the pitching of Scott Olsen. It's interesting to watch him learn as the season goes on. In April he had a good ERA but lots of walks and not too many strikeouts. In May, he got the strikeouts up, but the walks were high and the balls were flying out of the park. Now in June, he's cut down on the walks, kept the strikeouts up, and kept the ball in the park. The result is four earned runs in 13 2/3 innings.


Posted by David Pinto at 09:29 AM | Games | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Soler looked great. Truth is, he's been excellent three of his first four starts; that first start against the Phillies was spot-on after the first 5 batters. I'm not sure I believe he's 26, but however old he is, it's not hard to see how this guy won two Cuban POY awards. He has four good pitches, and can even swing the bat a little, like most Cubano pitchers can. His only downside seems to be his...umm, emoptional stability. It looks like he gets frustrated easy by close ball/strike calls, or errors behind him. He'll probably have a handful of meltdown games, like his second start against AZ. Hopefully that will ease as he gets older and acclimated to NYC.

Posted by: E. Rotter at June 11, 2006 02:04 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?