Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
August 23, 2008
Games of the Day

Scott Kazmir faces Javier Vazquez as the Rays and White Sox continue their series in Chicago. Since the All-Star break, Kazmir's control took a nose dive. He walked 3.4 batters per nine innings before, 5.3 since. The extra pitches he's throwing shortened his average outing from six innings to 5 1/3. Vazquez is having his best month of the season, posting a 2.48 ERA in August. He's only allowed two home runs in the month after giving up six in each of the previous three.

Clayton Kershaw is the new Mr. No Decision. In fourteen starts, he's only recorded a 2-3 record. He'll need to average more than five innings per start if he wants to record wins. Cole Hamels tries to make it two in a row for the Phillies against the Dodgers. Hamels is less than two innings shy of his 2007 total. Despite giving up the same number of walks, two fewer homers and 14 fewer hits, his ERA is only 0.17 runs lower.

The Rockies host the Reds as Edinson Volquez takes on Aaron Cook. Volquez's BA allowed drops from .261 at GAB to .197 on the road. Cook is going through a rough patch in August, allowing 28 hits and 13 earned runs in 16 1/3 innings.

There are also three debuts of a sort today. Dirk Hayhurst makes his first major league appearance, pitching for the Padres. Despite good strikeout and walk numbers throughout his minor league career, Hayhurst is just making the majors at age 27. Of course, his gets added to the list of my favorite baseball names.

Brandon McCarthy spent the year on the disable list, but comes off today after work with Nolan Ryan. He returns to the majors with 13 straight scoreless innings at AAA. The White Sox are in contention this season with help from John Danks, and Texas hopes McCarthy can do the same for them next season.

Finally, Carl Pavano tries to make up for his lost contract as he goes against the Orioles. Starting him against a weaker team away from New York is probably a good idea. However, it is Baltimore, and they send their ace Jeremy Guthrie to the mound. Yankees fans like to travel south to see the team play (cheaper than going to Yankee Stadium) so it may be like home with the boo birds if Carl doesn't pitch well.

Enjoy!

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Posted by David Pinto at 11:13 AM | Matchups | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Kershaw has five consecutive quality starts (31 innings, five runs) and two victories to show for it. Don't know how he'll do in Philly today, but he's been doing his part.

Posted by: Jon at August 23, 2008 12:57 PM

A baseball gambling ad link? Yuk.

Posted by: sabernar at August 23, 2008 01:48 PM

Carl Pavano tries to make up for his lost contract

what's he going to win 50 games today? Hopefully he can concentrate on pitching in a big league game and not worry about 3 lost years.

Posted by: bandit at August 23, 2008 05:48 PM
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