August 29, 2014

Games of the Day

The Marlins play six of their next nine games against the Braves, starting Friday evening in Atlanta. Miami trails Atlanta by four games for second place in the NL East, and they trail the Giants by 5 1/2 games for the second wild card slot. It’s a do or die stretch for the Fish. Tom Koehler takes on Ervin Santana tonight. Koehler, in his second full year in the majors, upped his strike out rate. That lowered his hit rate and helped bring down his ERA by almost 0.6 runs. Santana is pitching well in the second half, 6-1 with a 2.75 ERA since the All-Star break.

The Indians will try to make a run at the division as they play three with the Royals then four with the Tigers. Danny Salazar visits KC and Jason Vargas to start things off. Salazar owns outstanding strikeout numbers in his 24 major league starts, but gives up a few too many home runs. Vargas is on his way to the lowest single season ERA of his career, right now standing at 3.17. His previous best was 3.78 in 2010.

The Athletics and Angels continue their series with Jon Lester facing Jered Weaver. Both starters came up in 2006. Since that time they rank 3rd (Weaver) and 6th (Lester) in winning percentage among pitchers with at least 100 decisions.

Finally, a Washington-Seattle World Series is not out of the question as the Nationals send Jordan Zimmermann against Felix Hernandez. Zimmermann appears to be back to his strikeout levels before his Tommy John surgery, with 140 K in 159 2/3 innings. Hernandez rivals Clayton Kershaw for title of best pitcher in the majors, or at least best one who has to face a DH constantly. He’s holding opponents to a .196 BA, and keeps both their OBP and slugging percentages under .300. Runners are 17 for 20 stealing against him. He stands as another example of pitchers doing well if they concentrate on getting the batter and not worrying too much about stolen bases.

Enjoy!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *