There are some solid starting pitchers taking the mound today hoping to get a victory. Bronson Arroyo has won three straight games, Brett Myers has seven wins and a 3.35 ERA, Colby Lewis is 9-5 with a 3.42 ERA, and Jaime Garcia has eight wins and a superb 2.27 ERA. Other notables include: Zack Grienke, Felix Hernandez, Francisco Liriano, Barry Zito, and Jon Garland.
The focus today, however, should be on two of the game's youngest stars: Clay Buchholz and Steven Strasburg. Buchholz will take the mound against Oakland today for the first time since he injured his groin running bases on June 26th. He has already set a career-high in wins (10) and will set new marks for Games Started and Innings Pitched during this start. He made one rehab start that yielded mixed results. His "stuff" was still top-notch, but he was rusty and his location was a bit shaky. It will help that he is making this start in Oakland (pitcher's park) and against their poor offense. My projection is 6.2 IP, 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 ER, 3 BB's, and 5 K's. He will get into a jam in the seventh and be replaced by a reliever who will get out of the tough situation allowing Buchholz to get his 11th win on the season.
Now on to Strasburg. He is making his ninth career start and will hope to lower his ERA below 2.00 and get his fifth career win. Two things will have to happen if he is going to get his W. First, the Reds' offense will have to be a bit flat in order for him to shut them down and the Nats offense will have to score enough runs to put him in position to get the W as he hands the ball to the bullpen. This brings me to my second point: the bullpen must hold the lead. Strasburg will most likely go six innings, which means that Nats seventh inning man, Drew Storen, set-up man, Tyler Clippard, and closer, Matt Capps, will have to be lights out. The Reds should sweep the Nationals in every series they play, but if the Nats are going to get a win, it will be with Strasburg on the mound.
Well, Strasburg had enough to get it done and the bullpen, while not great, held on. Arroyo blew up but he kept getting squeezed by the ump and Cairo could have made a play to keep him in the game.
ReplyDeleteBuchholz wasn't horrendous but he wasn't sharp and looked rusty. Giving up 2 jacks, one by Matt Watson hitting .143, didn't help.
However, Matt Watson's story is a great one in perseverence. Came up with the Mets in 2003, 2 years at AAA with OAK, Japan next, then in the minors with TOR, then South Korea, back to the Mets and released due to a a bad back, Lancaster of the independent league, back to the A's in the minors, and promoted recently. Wow - what a journey!