Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
July 11, 2008
Games of the Day

Arizona and Philadelphia cling to slim leads in their divisions as they face off in a three-game series leading to the All-Star break. Doug Davis and Kyle Kendrick start the action tonight. Davis was up and down in his first four starts after returning from cancer treatment, but he's posted a 2.67 ERA in his last five starts, going fairly deep into games. I especially like his 31 K and 12 BB in 33 2/3 innings. Kendrick's excellent record is as much a result of his support as his pitching. He's number one in the NL in run support per nine innings at 7.60.

Tampa Bay tries to end it's four-game losing streak, but need to get by Cliff Lee of the Indians. James Shields takes the mound for the Rays. Shields, however, is one reason Tampa Bay doesn't perform well on the road. His ERA goes up nearly four runs this season away from The Trop. Lee, for some reason, hasn't pitched much in Cleveland this season. Only six of his seventeen starts came at home, where he enjoys a 1.84 ERA.

The Yankees travel to Toronto as Joba Chamberlain faces Jays ace Roy Halladay. Joba hasn't shown the control he had as a reliever, but his 2.57 starter ERA is rather impressive. Halladay upped his K rate in 2008 compared to 2007. He struck out 5.5 per 9 last season, 7.4 in 2008, a increase that led to a lower ERA.

Finally, the Athletics get another chance to gain on the Angels before the all-star break. They send Rich Harden replacement Sean Gallagher against LAnaheim's Jon Garland. Gallagher looks like he was hurt a bit by his defense, as his FIP is about 40 points lower than his ERA. Oakland has the best DER in the American League (although the Cubs DER was also very good). Garland does very well against the top of the order, allowing just a .206 BA in the first inning with a .289 OBA and a .265 slugging percentage.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 08:49 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

This is huge series for Angels and A's. If A's sweep the A's are 2 games back and if the Angels sweep the Angels will be 8 games ahead. Will be interesting to see how Gallagher handles his first start against AL hitters.

Posted by: Andrew Godfrey at July 11, 2008 01:22 PM
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