Game #21 Preview: Stroman vs Brooks

The Blue Jays head to the lovely confines of the Oakland Coliseum for a 3 game weekend series against the host Athletics. Tonight’s game gets underway at 10:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Marcus Stroman makes his 5th start of the season tonight, looking to come back from a shortened outing his last time out. He threw 91 pitches across 4 innings, although he allowed just 3 unearned runs. In total this year across 22.2 innings, Stroman has allowed 8 runs (just 5 earned) for a very shiny 1.99 ERA, allowing 20 hits and 10 walks, but avoiding damage with 23 strikeouts and 3 double plays.

Athletics’ Starter

Right Hander Aaron Brooks gets the start for the Athletics. Brooks has bounced around a lot over the last few years, pitching the Cubs, Royals, Brewers and Athletics organizations since 2015, playing in just 21 games at he Major League level. He has 13 starts overall in his career, with a very poor 7.18 ERA. But this year has gone a lot better for the 28 year old, as he is currently 2-1 with a 4.24 ERA.

Brooks throws your standard fastball, slider, changeup and curveball mix, sitting at 91-92 with the fastball. He doesn’t get many strikeouts (11 in 17 innings this year), and he has never been much of a groundball pitcher (hovering in the mid to low 40s in GB%). That makes the Oakland Coliseum one of the most ideal places for him to be pitching.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

The Blue Jays’ lineup enjoyed their time in Minnesota a bit, and were able to take 3 of 4 against the Twins. Now that they’ve moved on to Oakland, we hope that the success continues.

I can’t imagine anyone but Eric Sogard leading off the game again today. With him and Freddy Galvis at the top of the order, followed by Randal Grichuk, a red-hot Justin Smoak and a heating up Teoscar Hernandez, this is starting to look like a non-embarrassing lineup. If we upgrade at 3B, perhaps even next week, this lineup may move up the threatening spectrum from “HA” to “oh...”

Athletics’ Lineup

The Athletics are off to a pretty decent start on the offensive side of things, scoring 4.95 runs per game, which is apparently just in the middle of the pack in the offensive heavy 2019 season.

The A’s are getting good starts to the season from Mark Canha (167 wRC+), Matt Chapman (158 wRC+), Khris Davis (153 wRC+), Marcus Semien (150 wRC+), and Josh Phegley (149 wRC+). That has helped drive an entire team wRC+ 110, and their 37 home runs are 3rd in all of baseball.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Ryan McMahon went 3-4 yesterday, launching a pair of home runs and driving in 5 to earn our Monster Bat award. His bat helped carry his Rockies to the 6-2 win over the visiting Phillies.

Patrick Corbin made it through 7.2 innings yesterday afternoon, allowing just a single run in the 8th inning on a 2 out double that knocked him out of the game. But he allowed just that 1 run on 2 hits, walking a guy and beaning another, while striking out 9 and earning the Pitcher of the Day award in the Nationals 4-2 win over the Giants.

Joey Rickard had a big day yesterday, hitting a big single in the 3rd, a bigger triple in the 7th, and the biggest, an RBI double in the 11th to help the Orioles beat the Rays 6-5 in 11 innings. Rickard’s 4-5 day ended with a WPA King total of 5.91.

Find the Link

Find the link between Brooks and Daniel Robertson.

Stats are courtesy of Fangraphs