The Tigers and Twins square off, weather permitting, in Minnesota as Tyson Ross faces Michael Pineda. Ross appears to be pitching carefully to batters, and so far it paid off. He walked five batters in 12 innings, but allowed just nine hits for a .209 opponent BA. Pineda is living up to expectations following a year missed due to injury. He struck out 10 and walked just two in nine innings of work, good for a 2.00 ERA.
In a battle of veteran pitchers, Justin Verlander leads the Astros against the Mariners and Felix Hernandez. Verlander has aged better than Hernandez. The Houston ace had some ups and downs, mostly due to injury, but found himself again with the move to Houston. Hernandez has yet to allow a walk or home run this season, but opponents are batting .333 against him. The way things are starting this season, Hernandez may be looking at his third straight season with an ERA over 4.00.
There is very little velocity difference between Hernandez’s fastball and change up any more. One of the tough things for pitchers, especially ones who had good fast balls, is to adjust to a loss of velocity. Mike Mussina finally did it in his last season. Like Mussina, Hernandez still has good control, so maybe he can transition to a pitcher who throws a low speed fastball, and extremely slow off-speed pitches.
Enjoy!
from baseballmusings.com http://bit.ly/2VII3aW
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