Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 08, 2007
Games of the Day

Two teams headed in opposite directions face off in Toronto as the Blue Jays host the Red Sox. Since taking a two-game series in Boston, the Blue Jays are 3-8 and lost five games to the 8-3 Red Sox. The pitching matchup favors that trend continuing as Josh Beckett takes on Victor Zambrano. Beckett's 6-0 record is well deserved. He posts high strikeouts and low walks. In addition, only one home run flew off a bat against him. He certainly benefited from the reduction in long balls this season. Zambrano makes his second start after six relief appearances. The results in both roles are bad, as the league hits .353 against him with a .489 OBA.

In Chicago, two pitchers who are better than their .500 records square off as the Pirates visit the Cubs. Ian Snell allowed 10 runs in six starts, but the Pirates only scored 11 with him on the mound. Lilly's allowed 14 and the Cubs scored 17. Both allowed just two home runs this season. For both, that's a big drop from their normal home run rates.

Jorge De La Rosa emerged as the number two starter for the Kansas City Royals. For the first time in his career his walks are under control, lowering his ERA almost two runs from his career average. He'll host Chad Gaudin, who's helping take up the slack from the loss of Rich Harden. Chad limits the power of the opposition, giving up just nine extra-base hits this season for an opposition slugging of .336.

Finally, it's the old versus the new as Tom Glavine faces Matt Cain. Glavine sits in the bottom 20 (majors) in home runs allowed per 9 IP, but four of the six went for solo shots, so damage has been minimal. Cain ranks second in the majors in walks per 9. We'll see which team is better at exploiting the weakness.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 02:26 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
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