Jacob Faria tries to like the way for the Rays as they face the Blue Jays and Buck Farmer. The 23-year-old Faria, a first year rookie, is off to a great start with 13 K, three walks, and no home runs allowed in his first 12 2/3 innings. He also won both his starts. The early returns show him with four plus pitches, a four-seam fastball, slider, curve, and change up. Farmer also comes into the game with a 2-0 record, and is plowing through batters with 20 K in 15 1/3 innings. The big difference between the two is that Farmer allowed two home runs.
Arizona send Robbie Ray against the Phillies and Ben Lively. I would be very curious about the defensive positioning behind Ray this season and last season. Ray struck out 218 batters in 174 1/3 innings in 2016, but allowed 185 hits. This season, he struck out 107 batters in 82 1/3 innings, but allowed just 53 hits. The BABIP against him dropped 99 points, from .352 to .253. Batters are hitting more fly balls against him, more as pop ups, fewer as home runs. So maybe Ray is avoiding a porous infield defense? Lively is pitching to contact. In 21 innings, he allowed seven walks while striking out just five. So far, the Phillies defense is getting the job done behind him.
Two other games don’t offer great pitching match-ups but are important in terms of the division races. The Nationals go for a four-game sweep of the Mets. Washington came into the series in a mini slump, and the Mets had closed the gap between the two teams to 8 1/2 games. Washington’s lead is now 11 games over the Marlins, and with all the other NL East teams well below .500, the Nationals should be able to figure out their bullpen problems and allow injuries to heal without worrying about blowing a lead. If the Mets lose again today, I suspect a shake up will be coming in Queens.
The Indians go for a sweep of the Twins, as Minnesota’s odd season continues. The Twins are 20-9 on the road, the second best record in the majors (Houston, at 23-8 is the best). Minnesota is just 14-23 at home, inlcuding an 0-6 against Cleveland. Just how unusual is that home-road split? Looking at an away winning index for games through June, 100*Away WPct/Home WPct, Minnesota ranks third in the expansion ERA (1961 on). The 2001 Reds were .270 at home, .524 on the road, for an index of 193.8. The 1961 Phillies were .229 at home, .438 on the road, for an index of 191.4. The Twins index comes in at 182.3. Note that the 2009 Phillies, index of 179.5 through June, went on to the World Series.
from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/2sf7sNc
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