Jered Weaver held the Rangers on one run on August 18, 2011. He pitches on short rest for the first time Sunday night. Photo: Icon SMI
The Nationals and Reds are out of their division races, but Jordan Zimmermann against Johnny Cueto looks like one of the best pitching match ups of the day. Zimmermann’s ERA came out high in July despite very good walk and strikeout numbers. Those went down a bit in August, but his ERA dropped nearly two runs, from 4.80 the previous month to 2.96 in August. Cueto split August with two great starts and two poor ones. He held Washington to one run in eight innings on August 17th, so another like that would keep him in the NL ERA lead.
The Pirates go for a split against the Cardinals as they send Jeff Karstens against Kyle Lohse. Karstens walked four and struck out 21 in 21 2/3 August innings, but holds a 6.65 ERA in the month. Despite the high K rate, Jeff allowed a .309 BA in the month. Lohse has only finished the sixth inning in one of his last six starts.
Ian Kennedy tries to break the tie for the lead in NL wins as he goes for his 17th of the season. The Diamondbacks host Cory Luebke and the Padres. Luebke ranks sixth in the majors with 9.57 K per 9 IP among pitchers with at least 100 IP. PETCO has not helped him that much, as only one of his seven home runs came on the road this season. Kennedy is not fading down the stretch as he goes for his fifth win in the month, and 9 walks and 27 K in 32 innings helped him to a 2.53 ERA in the stretch.
Finally, the Angels and Rangers play the rubber game of their three-game series with Jered Weaver facing Colby Lewis. Weaver makes the first start of his career on short rest. If you look at the Workload Regularity Score, it’s easy to pick out the blips in his starts. They are always there for extra rest. In his last 18 starts, Weaver pitched just one that didn’t qualify as a quality start, two appearances ago against Toronto. He allowed eight runs in that game. Since then, he allowed one run in 14 innings. Teams take Lewis deep in the heart of Texas, as he allowed 20 of his 30 home runs at home.
Enjoy!