Game #149 Preview: Pannone vs Lynn

The Blue Jays go for the Yankee Stadium series win this afternoon. The game gets underway at 1:05 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Rookie lefty Thomas Pannone makes his 4th start of the season. His last one went quite well, as he held Cleveland to 2 runs on 4 hits over 6.1 innings. He issued 3 walks against just 2 strikeouts while giving up 2 home runs, so FIP won’t consider it a good start. But he did a good job keeping hitters off balance, inducing a lot of weak contact.

Pannone doesn’t seem likely to ever strike out a lot of batters, but he’ll instead survive by getting a lot of weak contact and limiting his walks. He gets a ton of fly balls, which probably won’t bode well for pitching in New York, but if he can limit the number of other runners on base, we’ll probably see repeats of his last start where he allowed a couple solo shots but otherwise was in control. Someone like that isn’t a bad guy to have at the back of the rotation.

Yankees’ Starter

The Yankees’ counter with trade deadline acquisition Lance Lynn. Lynn has pitched well, achieving poor results with the Yankees. Through 7 starts and a relief appearance, Lynn has thrown 41.1 innings, where he has struck out 46 against 10 walks and 2 home runs. That has led to a shiny 2.28 FIP, which is nothing like his 2-2 record and 4.78 ERA.

Lynn faced the Jays on August 17 as a Yankee, and that start is a fairly good example of why Lynn isn’t anywhere close to his FIP. Through 4 innings, he struck out 5 without allowing a home run, but did walk 3 and allowed 5 earned runs. However, he gave up all 3 of his walks and 2 hits in the first inning, leading to 4 runs. After 3 straight 3-up 3-down innings, he opened the 5th by allowing a double and single before getting removed.

Lineups

Lourdes Gurriel gets the rare day off at SS. Nice to see Reese McGuire back behind the plate too, although Yangervis Solarte at 3B isn’t as appealing. I was expecting Russell Martin to be getting a start at some point in this series.

And I really have to show this stat. It’s pretty crazy, especially when you consider the playoff positioning of the other top 10 or so teams.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Yasiel Puig went 3-6 yesterday, launching 3 home runs to become our Monster Bat award, apparently slighted because he didn’t get it yesterday for his 2 home runs on Friday night. His big bat helped the Dodgers wallop the Cardinals 17-4 and move back into first place in the tight and exciting NL West.

Robinson Cano hit a go-ahead, bases clearing double in the top of the 8th, earning himself the WPA King title. His 3-run double made it 6-4, a lead that the Seattle bullpen was just able to hold on to, beating the Angels 6-5. Cano’s WPA on the day was .607.

Jon Lester threw 7 shutout innings, allowing a pair of hits and walks to earn the Pitcher of the Day honours. His excellent work helped the Cubs pull out the 1-0 win over the Reds, dropping Chicago’s magic number down to 12 as the Brewers also lost last night.

Find the Link

Find the link between Lynn and Trevor Bell.