Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
May 30, 2008
Games of the Day

The big NL East showdown starts tonight in Philadelphia as Florida comes to town. I hope Phish phans aren't conphused. The Marlins lead the Phillies by 1/2 game in the NL East, with Florida losing two in a row and Philadelphia on a four game winning streak. Mark Hendrickson opposes Brett Myers. Hendrickson has not gone deep in games his last four starts, averaging less than five innings. He's letting his pitching count climb early, putting pressure on the bullpen. Myers return to the rotation has been a rocky one. He's allowed 15 home runs this season, a rate of 45.9 per 200 innings. Of course, pitchers who allow home runs at that rate rarely get 200 innings. These are the top two home run hitting teams in the majors, so expect some fireworks.

The White Sox and Rays continue their battle of first place teams with Jose Contreras facing James Shields. While a lower home run rate contributed greatly to Contreras's success, he also lowered his walk rate as well. He's walking 2.1 per nine instead of his career average 3.2 per nine innings. Shields shows a huge home/road split this season, favoring his performances in Tampa Bay. He's allowed a 1.75 ERA at home, 6.04 on the road.

The Texas trails Oakland by 2 1/2 games as the Athletics come to town for a three game set. Young and Kinsler have hitting streaks of 14 and 13 games respectively, but they are weak streaks. Both are batting under .300, and Young's OBA during the streak is .292. The Rangers send Kevin Millwood against Justin Duchscherer. Duke is doing everything right for the A's this season, posting good strikeout numbers with a low walk and home run rate. Millwood takes advantage of the Texas offense at home to go 2-0 in Arlington despite a 5.40 ERA.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 08:42 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

If the Rangers had just ordinary pitching, they'd be sprinting towards the postseason. They're outscoring everybody else in the league in a very down year for AL offense. Only the Red Sox are even close.

Oh, those hurlers...a 4.81 staff ERA is not lovely any time, but it hurts even worse in a year when the overall AL number has shriveled to 4.09. At least the pitchers are doing better in May, and the improvement will need to continue for the team to contend. Padilla and Ponson (!) give hope for the rotation, and some of the relievers are proving fairly reliable.

Posted by: Casey Abell at May 30, 2008 10:24 AM

No showdon series in May - over 100 games left.

Posted by: Bandit at May 30, 2008 10:44 AM
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