Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 28, 2007
Games of the Day

Before you can reach second place, you need to reach third, and that's what the Twins try to do today as they send Johan Santana against Jose Contreras and the third place Chicago White Sox. Contreras has been two different pitchers home and away this season. He's on the road today, where he sports a 1.91 ERA, sixth in the AL. Santana, nearly unbeatable in Minnesota in the past, is only 2-3 with a 4.35 ERA in the dome this season.

Note you should blame too much of the Twins bad fortune on the loss of Joe Mauer. Mike Redmond filled in very well in his absence.

A possible playoff preview takes place in Boston tonight as Cleveland comes in for a visit. Cliff Lee faces Curt Schilling, but a more interesting matchup might be the rightfielders. The Red Sox replaced Trot Nixon with J.D. Drew, but Nixon owns the higher batting, on-base and slugging averages. And while Trot isn't exactly setting the league on fire, Drew's OPS is a low .677, way off his career average of nearly .900.
That's the impressive thing about the Red Sox, however. They've built a big lead with sub-par seasons from both Manny Ramriez and J.D. Drew. Both are likely to start hitting at some point, which makes the team even better. That's one reason I believe this team will hold its lead.

Seattle gets to show if they are for real in the AL West as they open a three-game series with the LAnaheim Angels. The Mariners trail the Angels by 4 1/2 games. Miguel Batista takes the hill for Seattle. He's 4-4 despite a 5.61 ERA. The reason isn't his run support, which is actually poor. He's either been blown out or pitched great, and in the majority of starts he's pitched very well. Batolo Colon takes the hill for the Angels. His record does stand on the Angels offense, as he's received 40 runs in support during his 43 1/3 innings of work.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 10:07 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
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