Game #156 Preview: Snell vs Borucki

The Jays wrap up their 4 game series against the Rays this afternoon, looking for the rare series win over Tampa Bay. The game gets underway at 1:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Left hander Ryan Borucki is making his 16th big league start. The first 15 have gone quite well, as Borucki is 4-4 with a 3.86 ERA, and an even better looking 3.57 FIP. He’s done a fabulous job preventing home runs, while also keeping runners off base with a below average walk rate. The strikeout rate is uncomfortably low, but as long as he can manage contact well, that shouldn’t be a big problem.

Borucki is coming off his best start of the season his last time out against the Orioles. In that game, he went 8 shutout innings, striking out 7 against 1 walk, scattering 3 singles throughout the night. It took him 105 pitches to get through 8 innings, but there was still some disappointment that he wasn’t brought back out there to finish it off. But it was still a great start that showed just how good Borucki can be when he’s on.

Rays’ Starter

For the second straight game, the Rays are going with an actual starting pitcher, sending out Major League win leader Blake Snell, the only pitcher so far this season to reach the 20 win plateau. On the season, Snell is 20-5 with an amazing 1.97 ERA, the second lowest mark among all starters in baseball. With 2 starts against the Blue Jays remaining, he has a really good chance of staying below 2.00.

Snell has only pitched against the Jays once this year, his second start after a 3 week DL stint. In that start, he was limited to just 5 innings, but he was perfect in those 5 innings, striking out 6. While we were happy to see his night end, it didn’t do us any good as the Jays still lost 7-0.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

The Jays go with a very young roster today, featuring 5 rookies.

Teoscar Hernandez returns to his natural habitat at DH. Davis gets the start in the outfield, but Alford is still on the bench.

Rays’ Lineup

The Rays surprisingly are going with a fairly balanced lineup, with 5 lefties and 4 righties against the lefty Borucki.

Willy Adames isn’t in the lineup tonight, so that means that Joey Wendle moves over to SS.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Rowdy Tellez, with his 3-4 day with a home run and double, earns the Monster Bat award.

Stephen Piscotty scored the walk-off run on a 2-out wild pitch to help Oakland drop their magic number for a playoff spot down to 1. His WPA King total was .448.

Justin Verlander threw 6 shutout innings, allowing just 1 hit and struck out 11. He earned the Pitcher of the Day award while helping his Astros beat the Angels 10-5.

Find the Link

Find the link between Snell and Rick Porcello.