The Guardians go for a sweep of the historically bad White Sox as Matthew Boyd takes on Davis Martin. Boyd make his sixth start of the season, looking to improve on his 2.20 ERA. That’s well below his career average as he reduced his walk and home run rates in a small sample of 28 2/3 innings. Martin stands 0-3 despite a 3.29 ERA. That ERA may be better than his overall stats, as he allowed a .188 BA with runners in scoring position.
The Rays send Shane Baz against Zack Wheeler of the Phillies. Baz owns a .303 opposition OBP and a .347 slugging percentage, but that has not translated into wins. At the moment, Baz does not go deep in games. Wheeler looks for his 15th win of the season, which would be a new single season high for him. He is 23 Ks away from setting a single season mark in that stat as well.
Cole Ragans battles Luis Gil in the rubber game of the Royals at the Yankees. Ragans increased his K rate in a year that strikeouts are down, and he did that while reducing his walk rate. Gil also owns a K rate over 10 per 9 IP, but has yet to find his control.
Michael King and Bryan Woo take the mound in the Padres at the Mariners. King on the hill owns a 3.10 ERA, and needs about six inning to qualify for final season leaderboards. Woo comes in with a 2.36 ERA, and opponents own a low .230 BABIP against him, which makes up for his low K rate.
Enjoy!
Player 1: first 3 MLB starts: 15.1 IP, 1 run, 0.59 ERA, 12 K’s, 8 walks, 11 hits
Player 2: first 3 MLB starts: 16 IP, 4 runs, 2.25 ERA, 21 K’s, 4 walks, 12 hits
Which pitcher would you say had the better MLB start, out of the gate?
First guy is Cincy’s Rhett Lowder (#7 overall pick in 2023 draft), who debuted last month.
Second guy is of course Paul Skenes – who (deservedly) got all the hype.
I would say Skenes was more dominating in his first 15 innings (more strikeouts) … but he allowed more runs [and after all, the end goal of a pitcher is to prevent runs from scoring].
Lowder has had overall better results.
I believe I did discuss Lowder recently. It should be fun watching the two compete in the same division over the years.