Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
September 09, 2007
Games of the Day

It's incredible how bad the Mariners played over the last two weeks. Twenty games over .500, facing a stretch against the opponents to beat to gain a playoff berth, they go 1-13, 1-7 against the Angels, Yankees and Tigers. They finish that stretch up today as Felix Hernandez, the pitcher who owns that lone win, goes against Jeremy Bonderman. Despite that record, they're not out of the AL Wild Card race, but they're certainly teetering on the brink. This is their last chance to help themselves, as they face neither Detroit nor New York the rest of the way.

Pedro Martinez makes his 2007 Shea debut this afternoon. He draws Astros ace Roy Oswalt, so it should be a good one. Oswalt is six walks away from setting a new career high, one reason his ERA is up over the last two seasons.

Beckett and Wang stay on rotation as the two race to twenty wins. Both face fourth place teams today, which should help each win game number eighteen. What's impressive about both is they missed three or four starts, and still lead the AL in wins. Here's a comparison of the three 17 game winners. Sabathia out performs both.

The two teams play a three game series with a day off before they meet in Boston for the last time. We'll see if the rotations work out for a head-to-head meeting. Wang faces Zack Greinke today, who is on a bit of a roll himself. He hasn't allowed a run since returning to the rotation three starts ago, and the Royals are doing a good job of working him back, extending him by an inning each outing. He's struck out eleven and walked one in those twelve innings.

Finally, a good pitching matchup as the Dodgers play their last game in San Francisco this season. Brad Penny takes on Matt Cain. Penny's made three starts against the Giants in 2007, but has only struck out four in nineteen innings. After being the poster child for lousy support most of the season, Cain is 4-2 in his last eight starts with a 3.35 ERA. He's only allowed three homers in his last 51 innings.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 10:03 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

#52 for A-Rod

Posted by: rbj at September 9, 2007 02:24 PM

A decent, if not stellar, return to Shea for Pedro: 5 innings, no runs, 4K, got the win - but he needed 92 pitches to get through, and got into a couple of jams.
Not overpowering like the Pedro of old; but it looks like the mets have finally got their starter back....

Posted by: Jay C at September 9, 2007 05:17 PM
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