In an off-day for many clubs, a couple players had great games. Alex Rios homered in the 9th and stole a base in the 2nd in a win over Justin Masterson and the Tribe. Rios is now hitting .309 on the year with a BABIP right where it should be. The strike-outs are down a couple percent and he’s making contact 5% more of the time. Rios’ first strike percentage is down almost 8% and his SwStr% has followed suit, down almost 2pts. Everything about Rios’ resurgence looks to be legit; it’s just a matter of dedication at this point.
Sergio Santos picked up another hold and registered a strike-out; that’s 10.90 K/9 on the year. Santos’ fastball is averaging 95.5mph and he’s getting 10mphs of separation on his off-speed stuff (SL: 85.5, CH: 86.3). The back-end of Santos, Thorton, Putz and Jenks all pitched in John Danks‘ victory and everyone looked solid. Santos gave up the only hit and Jenks the only walk.
Dustin Pedroia had three hits against the Rays and both Youkilis and Ortiz hit DINGERS! Youkilis has hit 5 of his 10 home-runs in the last 8-games, I think that’s a hot-streak. Ortiz has followed suit, hitting 5 of his 9 homers in the last 9 games. Things are definitely heating up in Boston and everyone gets a slight bump in the rankings.
Clay Buchholz pitched 6 solid innings getting the quality start: 6H, 1ER, 8K, 1BB. Carlos Pena took Buchholz deep for his only run surrendered. Hopefully if you own Pena, you’re in an OBP league. Pena’s hitting .191 on the year which is only palatable when he’s hitting homers. Buchholz, despite his somewhat disappointing K-Rate (6.95-per-9), has returned to his 2007-ways in terms of O-Swing (31%) and Swinging Strike (11%).
Aaron Harang got the win despite allowing five runs (four earned). Harang only allowed a couple of walks but gave up eight hits in 6.1IP. Over the course of the season, Harang’s just been remarkably hittable. Harang’s velocity is up but the horizontal movement has dropped; counteracting that, is the increase in vertical movement. Batters are just teeing off on Harang’s fastball and I really don’t have an answer… or even a question, at this point. A .353 BABIP and 65% LOB-rate certainly aren’t helping things. Harang’s release point is still clustered by pitch, rather than constant, though.
The Blue Jays didn’t homer in last night’s 6-0 victory over the Angels but Adam Lind had a double. I keep wanting to believe that Lind will snap out of it but the 26% K-Rate is worrisome as is the return to 30%+ O-Swing. He’s definitely pressing.
The big story of the night was Jose Bautista’s 3 walks. The Angels didn’t want to pitch to him and Bautista resisted temptation. Edwin Encarnacion or E5 followed suit by taking a couple walks of his own.
Brett Cecil will get his own article but he pitched very well: 7.1IP, 3K, 2BB. Cecil’s WHIP is now at 1.15 on the year.
