A good pitching matchup in New York tonight between two young pitchers. Mike Pelfrey takes on Jair Jurrjens. Pelfrey's 3.18 ERA is only 0.06 behind Johan Santana. Mike pitched much better at Shea this year, giving up the same number of hits as on the road, but in almost twice the at bats. Jurrjens has walked nine batters in 25 1/3 innings, but his control is better than that. Four of those walks were intentional, tied for the most in the majors.

Only 0.38 separate the ERAs of Ryan Dempster and Odalis Perez, but their records are opposite as the Cubs Dempster comes in at 3-0 while the Nationals Perez lies at 0-3. Dempster has been wild, walking eleven batters in 24 innings, but he's allowed a mere .167 BA with runners in scoring position. The Nationals have not scored more than four runs in any of Perez's starts, averaging a little over two runs in the games he pitched.

Minnesota and Texas send two evenly matched pitchers to the mound as well. Nick Blackburn comes off 7 2/3 shutout innings against Cleveland, and is getting twice as many balls hit on the ground compared to hit as flies. Millwood pitched well against the Red Sox his last time out, but his bullpen couldn't hold the lead he helped establish. Kevin is giving up a lot of hits, but he's helped by the great majority of them going for singles. His opponents isolated power is just 0.062.

Finally, the Marlins head north to take on the Brewers. Scott Olsen is undefeated for the Fish, his 2.60 ERA a result of holding right-handed batters to a .190 batting average. Yovani Gallardo makes his second start since returning from the disabled list. He allowed just one run in his first start, and now holds a 3.53 ERA in his 117 1/3 innings major league career. Although a right-handed pitcher, left handed batters hit about nine points lower against Gallardo.

Enjoy!

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