Game #153 Preview: Font vs Ynoa

The Blue Jays will fight for the 3 game sweep against the Orioles this evening, trying to get their first sweep since they swept the Royals at the end of July. Tonight’s game is set for 7:05 ET, but if memory serves, the last 2 games were closer to 7:10 before they started.

Blue Jays’ Starter

The Jays will kick things off with opener Wilmer Font. Font will be making his 16th start of the season, trying to improve on his 4-4 record (spolier: he can’t as an opener) with a 4.24 ERA on the whole. In his time as a Blue Jay his 2.81 ERA and even better 2.43 FIP really makes it look like the Jays have unlocked something in Font, and look for him to (hopefully) be one of the few pitchers left on this team come Spring Training.

Following Font will be Anthony Kay, making his 3rd appearance for the Jays and first in a bulk guy role. So far, Kay has allowed 7 runs on 11 hits and 4 walks over 10 innings, but he has yet to allow a home run and has struck out 10 while keeping the ball on the ground pretty well. The high number of hits are concerning, but overall there is a bit of excitement with what he has done so far combining the strikeouts with the groundball ability.

Orioles’ Starter

The Orioles will counter with righty Gabriel Ynoa. Ynoa is having a rough season so far, currently sitting with an 1-8 record and a 5.74 ERA in 100.1 innings. This will be Ynoa’s 12th start and 34th appearance overall, and only his walk rate looks good. He has walked just 2.15 per 9 innings, which means that he has allowed more home runs this season than walks, as that rate is at 2.24. He isn’t striking many batters out either, just 5.47 per 9 innings. All of this adds up to a pretty terrible 6.01 FIP.

Lineups

I’m in a place with really slow internet that doesn’t load so well, so I’m out of time for this part. Assume that the Jays will have an Alfordless lineup, and Jonathan Villar and Trey Mancini will be in the lineup to keep our pitchers honest.

Yesterday’s Heroes

I’m going to have to play this by ear with a poor internet connection that isn’t allowing me to access Fangraphs anymore.

Tommy Pham had a 5 hit game with a pair of doubles, driving in 2 including in a very exciting game in Los Angeles. Russell Martin struck out to end it with the tying run on second base in the bottom of the 11th, and with that the Rays held on to win 8-7 over the Dodgers.

I don’t care if there is anyone who did better. Randal Grichuk gets the WPA King title with his come from behind Grand Slam with 2 outs in the 9th last night. He had a .638 WPA, so I think this is a safe bet, but there were some other exciting games last night too, althoug an 11-10 win for the Jays is pretty hard to top.

Homer Bailey and Danny Duffy each went 7 shutout innings head to head, so they can be co-winners of the Pitcher of the Day award. The Athletics won the game with a walkoff double by Mark Canha in the bottom of the 11th to beat the Royals.

Find the Link

Find the link between Ynoa and Jose Canseco.

Stats are courtesy of Fangraphs