Games of the Day

In what might be the Yankees last gasp, the Blue Jays come to town for a three game series. R.A. Dickey opposes Masahiro Tanaka in the opener. Now in his fourth season with Toronto, Dickey proved to be a poor pickup for Toronto. Coming off a Cy Young season, Dickey is now 48-50 for the Blue Jays with a 4.04 ERA. He neither strikes out nor walks very many batters, and the balls in play against him have not led to many hits. He does give up a good number of extra base hits, and those hits tend to come with men on base. I suspect that when he tires, the pitch gets creamed. Tanaka gets pounded for power at Yankee Stadium. He keeps people off base with a .261 OBP allowed there in his career, but 83 of his 201 hits allowed went for extra bases.

The Cardinals visit the Pirates with Adam Wainwright facing Chad Kuhl. The Pirates lost six games in a row, and while they are not out of the wild card race, that losing streak put them in a 3 1/2 game hole. Wainwright is no longer an elite strike out pitcher. He lives with a higher BA allowed, but somewhat compensates for that by keeping the ball in the park. The Pirates starters pitched decently during the losing streak, but have not gone deep in games. Kuhl is averaging less than six innings in his nine career starts, his biggest problem being the home run ball.

Justin Verlander and Chris Sale face each other for the second time in three starts as the Tigers play the White Sox. Neither figured in the decision the last time out. Verlander had his problems with Chicago over the years, as he is 19-13 with a 3.87 ERA against the White Sox. The South Side batters both put the ball in play and send it deep against the Detroit ace. Sale pitched well against the Tigers, but it has not translated to wins. His 3.09 ERA produced an 8-7 record in 28 games, 18 of them starts. The Tigers do manage to take him deep.

Finally, Cole Hamels tries to put another nail in the Mariners coffin as he leads Texas against Felix Hernandez. Hamels owns a 1.91 ERA on the road, thanks to opponents hitting just .203 against him. Hernandez showed no control against Texas this season, walking nine Rangers in 10 innings. He only allowed five hits, but three of them came with runners in scoring position, leading to nine RBI.

Enjoy!

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