Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 20, 2007
Games of the Day

The Cardinals try to salvage one game from their series with the Cubs as Joel Pineiro faces Ted Lilly this afternoon. Pineiro's been great since joining St. Louis, posting a 2.84 ERA in three starts, walking two and striking out ten. A good performance by Lilly today could bring his ERA below 3.69, his career best. He's at 3.74 entering the game. As in 2002, he's done a great job keeping free passes to a minimum.

Scott Kazmir seems to save his best for the Red Sox. In fourteen career starts vs. Boston, he's allowed zero runs five times (and zero earned runs six), including his last two starts. Despite a 2.37 career ERA vs. the Red Sox, he's only 5-3. He has the best ERA vs. the Red Sox since the start of the 2004 season (minimum 30 innings pitched). He'll face Tim Wakefield, who is looking for his fourth 15 win season. He has a shot at surpassing his career best 17 wins in 1998.

The Brewers try to get their team back to winning as they travel to Arizona. Yovani Gallardo posted a game score of -12 two starts ago (the worst in nine years, via Keith Woolner), and followed that up with a seven run outing vs. the Cardinals. Doug Davis, on the other hand, is 5-0 since the All-Star break with a 3.13 ERA. He's been helped by his defense, allowing a .200 opposition batting average in that time, versus .300 before the break.

And an important series opens in Anaheim tonight as the Yankees take on the Angels. If the Yankees make the playoffs as the wild card, their most likely opponent is LAnaheim. I'm sure Yankees fans would love to see New York face any other team. If the Yankees can sweep this series, however, it gives Seattle a better chance to win the division, and then New York might be able to edge out the Angels for the wild card, taking them out of the playoffs completely.

Phil Hughes faces Dustin Moseley tonight. A right-hander, Moseley keeps left-handed batters off base, holding them to a .289 OBA, about 100 points lower than against righties. That works well against a Yankees lineup full of lefties and switch hitters. Hughes has only allowed four hits on the road this year in two starts.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 08:45 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

How could you forget the all-importatn Giants-Marlins game? It 4-2 in the third, if you're keeping score at home.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 20, 2007 01:53 PM

Forgot to mention that the Giants are winning. It is nice that every Giants game isn't showing up on ESPN, now that BALCO, er, Bonds got that little record.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 20, 2007 01:58 PM

I'll get it right one of these days. The Marlins are winning 4-3. Halfway seriously, the Marlins might content in the NL Central with "only" a -51 run diff.

Posted by: Casey Abell at August 20, 2007 02:02 PM
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