The Orioles and Devil Rays matchup this afternoon with two under-performing aces on the mound. Erik Bedard enters the game with a 2-1 record but an ERA over five. He's struck out batters and kept his walks low, but balls in play are falling for hits or landing out of the park. Scott Kazmir suffers from the same problem. He's already allowed four home runs in 20 innings pitched. This could turn out to be a high strikeout, high scoring game.

In Oakland, another battle of aces as John Lackey battles Dan Haren. Dan owns the lower ERA, but John picked up two wins while Dan was saddled with two losses. The faced each other on April 7th, the difference being an unearned run in a 2-1 Angels win.

Dontrelle Willis takes on the Mets and John Maine this evening. Lefties are just 1 for 18 against Dontrelle, helping to compensate for the fact that right-handed batters are hitting .356 against him. The best way to describe Maine so far in 2007 is wild but unhittable. Despite walking eight in 11 2/3 innings, his opposition OBA is just .292 as he allowed just six hits.

Rodrigo Lopez is doing a great job of keeping batters off base so far this season. He'll take on a Dodgers team tonight that sports a .326 OBA. That seems low, but this season it's in the middle of the league. He'll face Derek Lowe who is putting men on base at a .337 clip but limiting them to one base at a time.

Finally, the rejuvenated Carlos Silva faces the best pitcher in the majors so far this season, Felix Hernandez. The King comes into the game with 17 scoreless innings. He's given up just four hits and four walks. Silva's close, having allowed just one run in two starts, but somehow that translated to an 0-1 record. Loading up on lefties against Carlos appears to be a good strategy this season.

Enjoy!