Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 15, 2007
Games of the Day

With two weeks of the season nearly in the books, no one is running away with a division. All three AL divisions offer races where four teams are less than two games out of first place. All three NL divisions find three teams less than two games out of first place. The Orioles and Brewers own the longest current winning streaks at three games. Almost every game is meaningful.

Three games are already underwater. The Red Sox, Mets and Phillies all postponed their games. The Marlins and Braves are scheduled to play, and a win by the Fish creates a three-way tie for first play in the NL East. Scott Olsen takes on Tim Hudson. Olsen is suffering from unusual wildness early, as he's walked nine and struck out five in 10 1/3 innings. Hudson's doing a great job of keeping opponents off base, allowing a .111 BA and a .216 OBA so far this season.

Ben Sheets tries to extend the Brewers winning streak against the Cardinals Braden Looper. So far, the switch from reliever to starter worked out well. Looper comes into the game with a 2.08 ERA, but I still worry that the lack of strikeouts will eventually catch up with him. Sheets in fifteen innings still hasn't walked a batter, although his lack of strikeouts also makes me wonder if he's returned to full strength yet.

The Yankees and Athletics play the rubber game of their series with Andy Pettitte facing Rich Harden both with sub-2.00 ERAs. Both pitchers are likely to be pushed to go deep in this game, with the two previous extra-inning games taking a toll on the bullpen. Harden will need to go after the selective Yankees lineup to stay efficient.

And finally, the Padres and the Dodgers celebrate Jackie Robinson day on the National stage. Chris Young and Randy Wolf get the call tonight. Young wrote his senior thesis at Princeton on Jackie Robinson. He's holding opponents to a .288 OBA so far this year. Wolf's been having trouble with right-handed batters this season, allowing all four of his walks to that side of the platoon.

Enjoy!

Update: Baltimore postponed their game with KC, and Pittsburgh postponed both ends of their double header with the Giants.


Posted by David Pinto at 11:24 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments
Post a comment









Remember personal info?