Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 21, 2007
Games of the Day

Detroit and Cleveland resume their battle for the AL Central tonight with Fausto Carmona facing Jair Jurrjens. Jair pitched okay in his first major league start against Cleveland, his big mistake being a two-run homer to Gutierrez. Carmona goes for his fifteenth win of the season. He's done a great job of keeping the ball in the park this season. He's on a pace to allow 16 homers in 210 innings pitched.

The Dodgers visit the Phillies in an NL Wild Card battle. The Phillies trail the Padres by one game and the Dodgers trail the Phillies by 1 1/2. The pitching matchup seems to favor the Phillies as Brett Tomko and his 5.67 ERA visit Kyle Kendrick. Kendrick's 3.94 ERA is a result of his low walk rate, just 18 in 75 1/3 innings. That makes up for his .271 BA allowed. Tomko performs better away from Dodger Stadium this season. Both his wins came on the road and his ERA is about two runs better.

If the playoffs started today, the Padres and Mets would be first round opponents. They present one of the best pitching matchups tonight as Chris Young takes on John Maine. Young's keeping his ERA under 2.00 by keeping the ball in the park. He's allowed just four home runs this season. Maine keeps both left and right handed batters off balance, both hitting less than .230 against him.

There's also plenty of playoff potential on the west coast tonight. The Brewers try to put another dent in the Diamondbacks drive to the playoffs, the Cubs take on the Giants rookie sensation Tim Lincecum, and the Yankees match fading star Mike Mussina versus young stud Kelvim Escobar.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 01:16 PM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

I've been really impressed with Carmona. He's fun to watch. The Indians have a very good 1-2 punch if they can just get a free agent pitcher in the off season they'll be extremely tough to beat next year.

Posted by: Devon Young at August 21, 2007 05:56 PM
Post a comment









Remember personal info?