Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 02, 2006
Games of the Day

January, 1984 will be well represented in the Boston/Florida game today as both starting pitchers were born in that month. Jon Lester is undefeated in four starts and sports a 2.95 ERA. He's tough to hit; with 24 strikeouts in 21 1/3 innings he's allowed just a .221 batting average. But he's walked 14, so a selective hitter can reach base against him. Josh Johnson comes into the game with a 2.20 ERA. He needs to pitch five innings today to qualify for the ERA leaderboard tomorrow. His greatest strength this season is his three homers allowed in 73 2/3 innings. Facing the Red Sox, he'll be put to the test in that category.

Interstate rivals the Twins and the Brewers finish up their three game series, with Minnesota sending Francisco Liriano to the mound as they go for the sweep and a ten-game winning streak. If Joe Mauer goes 4 for 4, he'll raise his batting average over .400. Standing in their way is rookie Zach Jackson. Jackson shows Twins like control on the mound, walking just three so far in 23 innings pitched. But he leaves the ball hanging a bit too often as he's given up five homers in that time.

The White Sox and Cubs send their aces to the mound as Mark Buehrle opposes Carlos Zambrano. Buehrle's ERA is nearly a run higher away from home, and given that the opposition is hitting .311 against him in White Sox road games I'm surprised it's not higher than that. Zambrano continues to be the only dependable starter on the Cubs staff. With his two homers and six RBI, he's even contributing to the weak Cubs offense. Let's just hope the fans keep the garbage in the stands today.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 11:38 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?