Game #21 Preview: Garcia vs Severino

After a forgettable blowout loss to the Yankees last night, the Blue Jays look to leave the Bronx after earning a 4 game series split this afternoon. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Left hander Jaime Garcia will be making his 4th start of the season, and he’s the last of the 5 to be making one against the Yankees.

So far in 2018, Garcia is 2-0 with a 3.86 ERA across his 16.1 innings. He has struck out 17 while walking 5 and surrendering 4 home runs. A home run every 4 innings isn’t going to result in a good season.

Garcia has been throwing higher in the zone this season, and as a result isn’t getting the ground balls that have thus far helped define his career. On the season, he has a 39% GB rate, far below his 56% career number. His strikeouts are up, and that’s helping him keep his ERA down, but with a 5.52 FIP, regression of some sort is likely to bite him if he keeps pitching like he has.

Yankees’ Starter

Luis Severino is off to an amazing start to his season. After coming in 3rd in last year’s AL Cy Young voting, Severino has found a higher gear. His fastball velocity is up another 0.6 mph, allowing him to top even a healthy Noah Syndergaard for highest FB velocity among starters.

As a result, through 4 starts and and 24 innings, Severino has a 2.63/1.81/2.89 line with a 3-1 record. He has struck out 10.5 batter per 9 while walking 3 and not surrendering a home run.

In his first start of the season against the Jays on opening day, he held them to 1 hit and 3 walks over 5.2 shutout innings, as the Yankees won 6-1.

Lineups

Ben Wagner was nice enough to take shot of both lineups at once, so we’ll just talk about it all in one heading.

For the Jays, Granderson is back in right field while Teoscar Hernandez makes his 8th consecutive start since being called up. Lourdes Gurriel gets the start at SS while Travis is back in the lineup. The bench contains Grichuk, Pearce, Diaz and Maile.

The Yankees have called up uber-prospect Gleyber Torres (aka the only shortstop consensusly ranked higher than Bo Bichette, as Baseball America ranks Fernando Tatis Jr. one spot behind Bo). Anyway, Torres gets the start at 2B for the Yankees, who are also giving Brett Gardner the day off, to the dissatisfaction of no one.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Josh Reddick of the Astros was the big bat yesterday, going 2-3 with a couple of home runs in the Astros 10-1 win over the lowly White Sox.

Johan Camargo of the Braves earned the title of WPA King. He had game tying rbi triple in the bottom of the 9th, scoring an out later on a walk off bunt by Ender Inciarte. Camargo’s WPA on the day was .545.

The Pitcher of the Day is a pretty easy choice. The Athletics Sean Manaea threw the season’s first no-hitter, and he did it against the early season’s best team - the Boston Red Sox. Manaea struck out 10 and walked 2, while also out-dueling Chris Sale and ending the Red Sox winning streak. I’m contemplating renaming this award the Manaea of the Day, although Jose Berrios might have something to say.

Find the Link

Find the link between Severino and a fellow Dominican who the Blue Jays set down all 4 times in his last regular season career game in October of 2016.