Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 13, 2008
Playoffs Today

It should be a nice afternoon for a game in Boston as Matt Garza and Jon Lester batter in the Back Bay. Garza lived up to expectations this season, increasing his MLB innings by 100 over 2007 while maintaining nearly the same ERA. Graza allowed fourteen of his nineteen home runs on the road this year, accounting for his higher road ERA.

Matt had his troubles with Boston this season, despite starting three of his four games at home. He did pitch seven shutout innings against the Red Sox on July 1st. In his other three starts, he allowed 11 earned runs in 15 innings, walking eight and striking out seven.

Lester far exceeded expectations. He added nearly 150 innings, lowering his ERA nearly 1.4 runs vs. 2007. Lester only started against the Rays at home in 2008, posting a 0.90 ERA in three starts. He struck out over three times as many Rays as he walked.

Given the location strengths of Garza and Lester, the Red Sox should be clear favorites in this game.

Mid-season acquisition Joe Blanton gets to pitch on the west coast again as he face Derek Lowe. Lowe gets the game four start on short rest, allowing him to come back in game seven on normal rest. With the extra day off on Tuesday, Joe Torre only need his top three starters, Lowe making the only start on short rest. Torre's been conservative with Lowe's pitch counts this October, keeping him under 100 pitches in both games. Derek has his ground ball machine working as he's induced 27 ground balls and only seven fly balls in his two playoff starts.

Blanton made two starts against the Dodgers this year, and like the Phillies team in general, the one in Los Angeles was poor and the one in Philadelphia great. Overall, I'm impressed he struck out ten LA batters in eleven innings. Blanton is not much of a strikeout pitcher, so that's a good number for him. We saw Sunday night, however, how the Dodgers are good at getting hits off low K pitchers, so the same thing may happen to Joe this evening.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 12:43 PM | League Championship Series | TrackBack (0)
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