April 09, 2008
Games of the Day
The Diamondbacks go for a sweep of the Dodgers this afternoon in Arizona. Both Hiroki Kuroda and Micah Owings performed well in their first starts of the year, each limiting the opposition to one run. Owings did it with strikeouts. His nine K in 6 2/3 innings helped hold the Rockies to just two hits. Kuroda made just one mistake in his outing, a home run to Brian Giles. Kuroda issued no walks; his control was one of his strengths in Japan.
The Phillies go for their 10th straight win against the Mets tonight at Shea. Kyle Kendrick faces Mike Pelfry in his 2008 debut. Kendrick's low strikeout totals caught up with him in his first start as he allowed four runs in five innings. The Phillies offense, however, bailed him out for the win. In his first two seasons in the majors, Pelfry suffered control problems, walking nearly as many as he struck out. That's a bad sign against a selective heart of the Phillies order.
Steve Trachsel tries to keep Baltimore's winning streak alive as he visits the Rangers and Kason Gabbard. Like Owings, Gabbard pitched poorly during spring training but opened with a flourish. He gave up seven hits to the Angels in seven innings, but kept them all to singles. That kept LAnaheim off the scoreboard. Since the start of the 2006 season, Trachsel has walked 156 batters while striking out 136. That's a very bad sign for a pitcher, even if he has a decent walk rate.
Enjoy!
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Posted by David Pinto at
11:39 AM
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The Phillies have weathered an extremely slow start by Howard thanks to ridiculous 1.200-plus OPS performances by Utley and Burrell. The team is coughing up five runs a game, but Chase and Pat (sounds like a comedy duo) have helped them score enough to stay even.
Sooner or later Howard has to kick in. The Phils are going to give up more than their fair share of runs.