Two teams off to good starts this season meet in Boston as the Oakland Athletics send A.J. Griffin against Felix Doubront. Griffin is following up his fine rookie season by trading a higher walk rate for a much lower home run rate so far. Doubront is blowing away batters with 13 K in 10 innings, but batters are hammering the pitches they do hit, hitting over .300 and slugging .500 against the Boston starter.

The Pirates and A.J. Burnett face the Phillies, who bring up Jonathan Pettibone for his major league debut. Burnett is posting incredible strikeout numbers early in the season, with 35 K so far. That’s more than twice the number of hits allowed in his 24 innings. Pettibone, seasonal age 22, has shown great control in the minors, except at AAA. The Pirates aren’t great at drawing walks, so we’ll see how the young right-hander holds up.

Finally, I love a battle of left-handers and CC Sabathia versus Matt Moore provides a good one. Although Sabathia’s velocity is down this season, he still shows great control and is holding the opposition to a .296 OBP and a .321 slugging percentage. Moore pitches to non-contact with 20 K and 11 BB in 18 innings so far. This seems to work, as batters managed just eight hits off him.

Enjoy!