September 2, 2014

Games of the Day

The Tigers send Kyle Lobstein to try to take game two of their series at Cleveland. The Indians counter with Carlos Carrasco. Lobstein walked five and struck out three so far in his 11 2/3 innings MLB career, but only allowed eight hits. I suspect if his K/BB stays at that level, his hits per nine innings will rise as well. Carrasco owns a higher K per 9 as a starter than a reliever this season. We usually expect the opposite, as relievers have no need to hold anything back.

The Pirates try to even their series with the NL Central leading Cardinals as Jeff Locke holds the key against Adam Wainwright. With a low K rate and a high home run rate, Locke’s 27 walks in 105 innings represents his strength as a pitcher. Wainwright competes for a Cy Young award because all three of those skills are excellent, although his strikeouts have been dropping recently.

The Mariners are now 1 1/2 games back in the wild card race after losing to Oakland on Monday. James Paxton tries to right the ship against Sonny Gray. Paxton comes off an outstanding August in which he posted a 1.65 ERA in five starts. Gray posted a 4.38 mark in the same period.

Finally, Doug Fister takes on Clayton Kershaw as the Nationals and Dodgers continue their series. Fister is pitching well this season, despite half the K rate and twice the home run rate of Kershaw. Fister is slightly better at limiting free passes. With the way the Nationals have smacked home runs lately, this could be a very interesting duel.

Enjoy!

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