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Hey! A Monday day-game! Actually, when I got up this morning, I had a horrible feeling that it was a 1pm Atlanta start, so I'd missed it - I am therefore highly-pleased that MLB took the fact I have Monday off into account, and scheduled it for the much more civilized start of 4:05pm. This will make it a pleasing afternoon diversion for me, here in Arizona. At least, I hope it'll be pleasing - at least, not the unreconstructed drubbing which was received at the hands of the Dodgers yesterday. The major cause for optimism there is that we do not have Yusmeiro Petit pitching for us: instead, it's a battle of two young starters who have already done a good job of proving their talents.
There are only two pitchers in the majors this year, age 22 or younger, who have thrown over 70 innings and have an ERA+ above 105. We met one in the Dodgers series, Clayton Kershaw - the vagaries of the schedule have us facing the other today, in the shape of Tommy Hanson. Cross off a rough first start, and his ERA over the eleven since is a mere 2.53, staking his claim as a potential Rookie of the Year. He has held opposing batters to a .245 average, but for once, our left-handedness might work for us, as he's been even rougher on righties - they hit only .204 off him. Hopefully, we'll be able to get to him, in the same way we did Kershaw.
Despite a couple of wobbly outings, Scherzer hasn't lost a game since his first apperance in July, and as we head into the last quarter of the season, I think we can probably call it a success for him. His ERA has been sub-four for almost the entire year, he's struck out more than a batter per inning, and Max has gone six innings or better in the majority of his starts. At age 25, we can still possibly expect some improvement, but he looks set to be a member of the Arizona rotation for the foreseeable future. His starts after today will be unknown territory, stamina-wise, as he heads past 130 innings, so be interesting to see how he holds up down the stretch.
Line-up
- Stephen Drew SS
- Trent Oeltjen LF
- Gerardo Parra CF
- Mark Reynolds 3B
- Miguel Montero C
- Chad Tracy 1B
- Alex Romero RF
- Augie Ojeda 2B
- Max Scherzer P
Oh, look: stacked with left-handers, what a shock. :-) Let's hope the offense, which largely slumbered against the Dodgers [batting only .219] wakes up for the road-trip. I might just boot up the lap-top and settle down in front of the TV for this one, so those without gainful employment for the day, and those who are dodging it, are welcome to join me for snacks and beverages.