Jake Arrieta at 5-0 for the Cubs faces Jonathon Niese, 3-0 for the Pirates. Many times when a pitcher has as low an ERA as Arrieta’s 1.00, he’s often doing a good job with runners in scoring position. Arrieta allows a .231 BA with runners in scoring position, but overall he allows a .151 BA. Opponents just don’t get many opportunities to drive in runs. The Pirates won all five of Niese’s starts, despite him recording a 5.08 ERA and only making one quality start. Pittsburgh scored 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 runs in those five starts.
First place teams collide in Chicago as the Red and White Sox battle. Steven Wright takes on José Quintana. Wright allowed just four earned runs this season, but errors seem to hurt as the also allowed three unearned runs. He is effectively wild with 25 K and 11 walks in 26 1/3 innings. Quintana is effective without the wildness, with 32 strikeouts in 30 2/3 innings with just eight walks.
Finally, the Phillies visit the Cardinals with Aaron Nola against Michael Wacha. Nola hasn’t suffered a sophomore slump, once again with and ERA in the 3.50s, a high strikeout rate, a low walk rate, and a much lower home run rate. Wacha owns a big reverse platoon difference this year, with lefties hitting just .206 and right-handed batters clobbering him at .311.
Enjoy!
Games of the Night- no day games today..a great loss to MLB I feel. It seems that MLB could schedule at least one Day game every day so that there is some baseball on from noonish till the last game…I taught and coached HS baseball for 34 years, and know that many kids became Cubs/Braves fans in the 80s and early 90s as the Superstations (WGN/TBS) were on basic cable all the time and they were able to see baseball all day in the summer…Today you must spend extra $$ for the Extra Innings package to get all the MLB possible, and Baseball is losing out on a lot of future fans and kids. Baseball loves to make poor long term choices for short term gain..
Luis » Actually, compared to the early 1990s, there are a lot more day games during the week. The A’s started doing the businessman’s special, playing at noon on Wednesdays. Then getaway day got popular. Monday and Tuesday are the main days with no night games.
Doesn’t seem that way, but I bow to your knowledge!! And thank you for this site. Love it.