Game #111 Preview: Gaviglio vs Leake

The Blue Jays look to finish off their impressive series in Seattle this weekend, looking for the 4 game sweep in front of the tens of thousands of Blue Jays’ fans that made the trip. Today’s finale gets underway at 4:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Sam Gaviglio gets the ball for the Jays. Through 14 starts and a pair of relief appearances, Sammy G is 2-4 with a 5.10 ERA. He is getting strikeouts (8.34 K/9) and limiting walks relatively well (2.99 BB/9), but he has struggled rather badly with home runs (1.62 HR/9). This has all led to a 4.81 FIP, but xFIP likes him more because it doesn’t see his 17.3% HR/FB rate as sustainable, and with a normalized rate, it would be 4.18.

Gaviglio has never faced the Mariners before, but he did start 11 games for them last year, pitching to a 4.62 ERA before heading to the Royals.

Mariners’ Starter

Seattle counters with right hander Mike Leake. The 30 year old veteran is having a pretty decent season, with an 8-7 record and a 4.16 ERA. He isn’t quite as good as last year with the Mariners, where he pitched to a 2.53 ERA over 5 starts after coming over from St. Louis.

Leake faced the Blue Jays back on May 10. He followed up James Paxton’s no-hitter with a good start of his own. He went 7 innings, allowing just a pair of runs on 6 hits, striking out 6 and walking 1. Russell Martin touched him up for a 2 run home run.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Kendrys Morales got the day off yesterday, and is quite likely to be back in the lineup today. Same for Curtis Granderson.

Luke Maile seems likely to make this start, since Martin has started the last 2 and it is a day game after a night game.

There will be two others on the bench. If I had to guess, and it seems like the point of this exercise, I would guess that it would be Devon Travis and Justin Smoak.

Mariners’ Lineup

Dee Gordon got the game off yesterday, while Andrew Romine got the start at 2B. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Romine get a start elsewhere around the diamond.

Mike Zunino has started 4 straight games behind the plate, so starting Chris Hermann might be a smart move for Seattle.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Nick Ahmed went 3-3 with a pair of homers and a walk, earning our Monster Bat award. The Diamondbacks used his offensive output, plus a 5-run 1st inning to trounce the Giants 9-3.

Corey Kluber threw a Maddux yesterday, allowing just 3 hits, a walk and a bean ball in Cleveland’s 3-0 shutout over the Angels. He obviously wins Pitcher of the Day with that kind of work, but also gets WPA King with his .529 WPA.

Find the Link

Find the link between Leake and John Olerud.