Game #155 Preview: Glasnow vs Pannone

After a bad loss last night, the Jays and Rays get right back at it this afternoon in game 3 of their 4 game series. Gametime is 4:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Young left hander Thomas Pannone makes his 5th big league start and 11th appearance overall. On the season, he is 3-1 with a 3.77 ERA, doing a great job managing contact while also limiting free passes. He doesn’t strike out many, and he allows too many home runs, but if he can induce weak contact and not give up free baserunners, he can have a little bit of success. Just probably not a whole lot.

Pannone is coming off back to back really strong starts against a pair of playoff teams. In 6.1 innings against Cleveland and 7 innings against the Yankees, he allowed 2 runs on 4 hits. He walked 3 while surrendering 2 home runs and only got 2 strikeouts against Cleveland, but really worked around the troubles all night. Against the Yankees, he walked 2, allowed 1 home run and struck out a career high 6.

Rays’ Starter

We get to see an actual starting pitcher from the Rays today. Recent acquiree Tyler Glasnow makes his 10th start in a Rays’ uniform. He is 1-4 with a 4.06 ERA, right in line with his 4.08 FIP. His FIP is hurt by a lot of home runs, as he is allowing them at a rather high HR/FB rate. For what it’s worth, xFIP says that a league average HR/FB rate would net him a 3.60 mark.

Glasnow has faced the Jays twice since coming over from the Pirates. In the first game while still being stretched back out, he went 5 innings allowing 1 run on 2 hits. He struck out 6 in that game while walking 2. However, the next time he faced the Jays, things did not go well for him. On September 5, the Jays lit up Glasnow for 7 runs on 5 hits and a pair of walks, surrendering a 3 run home run to Aledmys Diaz and being pulled from the game before the 1st inning was even over. Let’s go for more of that today.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Billy McKinney and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. seem to have locked down full time playing time and the top 2 spots in the batting order. Everyone is just falling into place around them.

Danny Jansen probably gets the start behind the plate today, as yesterday was Reese McGuire’s day and Luke Maile caught on Wednesday. I don’t imagine the 3 are all on a cycle, and Jansen seems to be pulling in the most starts.

I would guess that Rowdy Tellez is back at 1B today, as Justin Smoak takes his turn to sit and Kendrys Morales is the DH.

Kevin Pillar will be back in CF, while I would guess Randal Grichuk is in RF. Maybe Teoscar Hernandez displaces Morales at DH.

Rays’ Lineup

The Rays’ ability to find nothings and turn them into somethings is always frustrating. This year, it has been Joey Wendle. The 28 year old came over to the Rays for a PTBNL after 6 years of decent production in the Minors, putting up about 100 wRC+ for 3 years in AAA. Now that he’s a Ray, he has a 118 wRC+ and leads the team in WAR, and is second among AL Rookies in WAR as well (0.1 behind Shohei Ohtani’s combined hitting and pitching). Stupid Rays.

Anyway, with the lefty Pannone on the mound, we’ll likely see 3 new guys in lineup today - Jesus Sucre will move behind the plate in place of Nick Ciuffo, CJ Cron will play 1B for Jake Bauers, and Carlos Gomez will be in the lineup somehow.

Yesterday’s Heroes

The bash brothers, Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Yuli Gurriel, are the co-winners of the Monster Bat award. Both went 3-4 with a pair of homers and a single, but because Yuli plays on a better team he drove in 7 runs to his little brother’s 2. The Jays lost 11-3 to the Rays, while the Astros won 11-3 over the Angels. You’ve probably heard this over and over again, but this is the first time brothers have ever had a multi homer game on the same day.

Oakland took 10 innings to take down Minnesota 7-6, and they did so on the back of a Kris Davis walk off home run. His solo shot makes him the WPA King, giving him a .514 mark on the day as the Athletics inched closer to punching their playoff ticket, and they sit just 1.5 back of the Yankees in the fight to host the 1 game play-in.

Luis Castillo of the Reds took a shutout into the 9th inning last night, ultimately ceding his chance to complete 9 innings after a 1 out single and walk. The game went into extras as a scoreless affair, before the Marlins walked it off in the 10th. But Castillo’s efforts are still more than enough for the Pitcher of Day honours.

Find the Link

Find the link between Glasnow and Midre Cummings.