 |
| Because of the two triples in last night's game that wouldn't have happened anywhere else. |
Saturday, June 22, 2019 | 4:05 pm
The Park That Wouldn't Pass Muster If Built Today | East Massholia, MA
Derek Law (0-1, 5.16, 1.59) and Sam Gaviglio (4-1, 4.47, 1.05)
vs.
Brian Johnson (1-1, 10.00, 2.67)
PREAMBLE:
Well, that was a real ball-breaker last night. Two triples that wouldn't have happened pretty much anywhere else conspired to ruin Trent Thornton's excellent outing. This afternoon, the Blue Jays look to get a lead again and actually hold it this time without any ballpark shenanigans.
Today, we've got an opener, Derek Law, and he'll be followed by Sam Gaviglio in what will be a bullpen day. They'll take on Brian Johnson, who was beaten up a little by the Jays last year in going 1-1, 8.49 ERA in four appearances (2 starts). Gaviglio has been respectful enough against the Red Sox in his career, going 1-2, 4.79 in seven appearances (3 starts).
NOTES:
What more can you say about Trent Thornton? He seems to be getting more and more comfortable in the big leagues and is outperforming expectations thus far. His last two starts were against very tough offensive teams (HOU, BOS) and he effectively shut them down (13 innings, 2 runs, 14 K, 4 BB). He deserved a better fate in last night's game, but a dinky-dink bounce off that weird center-field wall corner ended his night and cued a Red Sox comeback. Don't look, but he's now second on the Blue Jays in bWAR with 1.7, only behind Stroman's 2.0 (faint praise, I know, but... let me have this one).
Some Useless Info from Jayson Stark:
- How about that crazy Colorado vs. San Diego series from last weekend? 92 runs, 131 hits, 27 doubles, seven triples, 17 homers, 42 walks, three stolen bases, 44 hits with runners in scoring position (in a mind-blowing 121 at-bats), 346 hitters (yes, 346!) marching toward home plate, 38 pitching changes, 15 one-run innings, 10 two-run innings, nine three-run innings, two four-run innings and two six-run innings. All in one four-game series, the most runs since 1900 for a four-or-fewer-games series.
- That series produced 92 runs. That is more than the 81 runs produced in all of San Diego's April home games (13 games).
- There were 131 hits in these four games. In 2017, Max Scherzer only gave up 126 hits for the entire season in over 200 innings.
- Charlie Blackmon had 15 hits and 10 RBI in the four games.
- Elsewhere... Miggy Cabrera is having a weird season -- he's hitting .295 overall on the season, but is having the largest difference in baseball history (so far) in hitting with RISP (.464) and in hitting with the bases empty (.194), a gap of 270 points.
- More Miggy-related: Mets pitchers have hit 5 HRs so far this season, while Miggy and other Tigers first basemen have combined for 4 HRs.
- Max Scherzer: First pitcher ever to throw seven shutout innings with one brown eye, one blue eye and one black eye.
LINEUPS:
This is your "you know how to take a
