Duel of the Day – Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Sorry for my lackluster blog yesterday, a sense of laziness came over me, and I hope it doesn’t return. School starts for me tomorrow and now i’ll be waking up a half hour earlier just to keep this blog alive, I love this thing and I don’t know what i’d do if I let it stop. Great performance by Cole Hamels, that makes 2 in a row, maybe if were lucky it can continue.
Pitchers who went 7 innings: John Danks (ND, 6 hits, 3 runs, 2 walks, 2 K’s), Joel Pineiro (W, 7 hits, 4 runs, 1 walk, 0 K’s), Doug Fister (W, 5 hits, 1 run, 2 walks, 2 K’s)
Pitchers who went 9 innings: Cole Hamels (W, 2 hits, 0 runs, 1 walk, 9 K’s)
The Duel of Yesterday: Jonathan Sanchez v. Cole Hamels
The Matchups:
Pittsburgh Pirates (Zach Duke, 10-12, 3.68) at Cincinnati Reds (Homer Bailey, 4-4, 6.04)
Chicago White Sox (Mark Buehrle, 11-7, 3.89) at Minnesota Twins (Brian Duensing, 2-1, 4.37)
Houston Astros (Felipe Paulino, 2-6, 6.96) at Chicago Cubs (Ted Lilly, 9-8, 3.35)
Kansas City Royals (Brian Bannister, 7-11, 4.60) at Oakland Athletics (Trevor Cahill, 7-12, 4.64)
Washington Nationals (John Lannan, 8-9, 3.95) at San Diego Padres (Kevin Correia, 9-10, 4.50)
Los Angeles Angels (Scott Kazmir, 8-7, 5.92) at Seattle Mariners (Felix Hernandez, 13-5, 2.77)
San Francisco Giants (Brad Penny, 7-8, 5.61) at Philadelphia Phillies (J.A. Happ, 10-3, 2.63)
Cleveland Indians (Aaron Laffey, 7-3, 3.40) at Detroit Tigers (Rick Porcello, 11-8, 4.27)
New York Yankees (CC Sabathia, 15-7, 3.56) at Baltimore Orioles (Jason Berken, 4-11, 6.33)
Boston Red Sox (Josh Beckett, 14-5, 3.80) at Tampa Bay Rays (Matt Garza, 7-9, 3.95)
Atlanta Braves (Javier Vazquez, 11-9, 3.02) at Florida Marlins (Rick VandenHurk, 2-2, 5.12)
Toronto Blue Jays (Scott Richmond, 6-7, 4.32) at Texas Rangers (Tommy Hunter, 6-3, 2.95)
Milwaukee Brewers (Dave Bush, 3-5, 5.88) at St. Louis Cardinals (Chris Carpenter, 14-3, 2.20)
New York Mets (Tim Redding, 2-4, 5.94) at Colorado Rockies (Ubaldo Jimenez, 12-10, 3.33)
Arizona Diamondbacks (Max Scherzer, 8-8, 4.26) at Los Angeles Dodgers (Chad Billingsley, 12-8, 3.83)
The Rundown:
Going out on a bit of a limb today, nothing too special when it comes to duels, i’m not even sure this one will be a duel but I like the matchup. Scott Kazmir makes his Angels debut, how strange it will be to see a Tampa Bay (Devil) Ray in a different uniform. He has been pitching well of late, winning 4 of his last 6 starts and striking out 10 in his last game, although he got a no decision. In 1 game against Seattle he pitched a terrible game, going 4.1 innings allowing 7 runs on 9 hits, that was just 4 starts ago. Felix Hernandez hasn’t been pitching poorly, but he is just 2-2 in his last 7 games. He did get the win in his most recent outing, going 7 innings allowing 3 runs against Kansas City. Against the Rays this season, Felix is 1-0 in 2 starts with a 2.08 ERA.
The Notables: Homer Bailey, who I still think has incredible potential has had two outstanding starts in a row, allowing 1 run in 15 innings. Ted Lilly, who has not had a bad start in 3 starts since his return from the DL, but he has no wins and a loss to show for it. J.A. Happ, who suffered a heart breaker of a loss last time out, the game was his and he allowed a 2 run homer, he’s better than that though, look for him to pitch good tonight. Aaron Laffey, who is 3-0 in his last 5 outings. CC Sabathia has been great lately, he is 7-1 in his last 9 games. “The Silent Assassin” Javier Vazquez is coming off a very good start and has had a nice season once again. There really isn’t much to say about the season that Chris Carpenter is having, it has been absolutely flawless. Ubaldo Jimenez pitched a good game once again, but suffered his first loss since July 10th.
The Pitcher's Duel 
I think the Beckett vs. Garza matchup is really intriguing — Tampa is almost completely out of the playoff picture now, but Garza is a fierce competitor and I look for this one to be a good game. I really like your call though for the Kazmir vs. Hernandez showdown — I pull for Scotty because he was one of my favorites in Tampa and I hope he gets off to a solid start with his new club.
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