Game #144 Preview: Waguespack vs Glasnow

The Blue Jays limp away from their roadtrip today, trying to salvage at least one win on this 6 game road trip as they wrap up their 4 game set against the Rays. The Jays have lost 6 games in a row, and are now 3-14 in their last 17, including 1-11 on the road. They’ll look to reverse that terrible trend this afternoon, with first pitch set for 1:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Jacob Waguespack will make his 10th start of the season and 13th appearance overall this afternoon, looking to improve upon some pretty good numbers. Through his first 59 innings, 4-3 with a 3.97 ERA, although once you start looking at ERA estimators, it gets worse. His FIP is 4.74, while his xFIP is even worse at 5.10, and even other ones like SIERA (5.01) and DRA (5.27) tend to agree more on the “Wags has been getting a bit lucky” side. Part of his success for sure has to do with his ability to hide the ball, missing barrels and inducing weak contact. Another part is likely him just being a rookie and getting the first laugh at teams who haven’t built a strategy against him. As time goes on, making adjustments will be key to any future success he has.

Rays’ Starter

Tyler Glasnow is expected to make his valiant return from the Injured List to start this game. He has been out for pretty much 4 months with a forearm strain, but being able to avoid Tommy John surgery seems to be a win here. He is expected to go a few innings today, as the Minor League seasons are done and he can’t go on a rehab assignment, so he’ll just get a little work in today against a nearly Minor League team.

Before he went down, Glasnow was having an excellent start to his season. Through 8 starts, he was 6-1 with a 1.86 ERA and a still great 2.30 FIP. Over 48.1 innings, he struck out 55, walked 9 and allowed 3 home runs. Half of his games were against terrible offensive teams, but he did dominate them, and those games still count too. And when he did face Houston, Boston and New York, he still did fairly well against them too.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Anthony Alford is stupidly on the bench again.

Rays’ Lineup

Yesterday’s Heroes

Mitch Garver went 2-3 with a pair of home runs and a walk, driving in 4 to pick up the Monster Bat award. He helped the Twins to the 5-3 win over division rival Cleveland, extending their lead to 6.5 games and reducing their magic number to clinch the division to 14.

NL MVP candidate Christian Yelich punched a walkoff double last night, giving the Brewers the 3-2 win over the Cubs and helping close the Brewers’ gap between them and the Wild Card leading Cubs. They are now 3 games back of the Cubs, who hold the second Wild Card spot, 2 back of the Nationals who hold the first. Yelich, for his efforts, wins the WPA King trophy with a .695 mark.

Also in the thick of the NL Wild Card hunt are the Diamondbacks, who are halfway between the Cubs and Brewers, and just had their pitcher pick up the Pitcher of the Day award. Alex Young threw 8 shutout innings, allowing just 2 hits and a walk while striking out 12. The D-Backs held the shutout after Young came out, beating the Reds 2-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between Glasnow and the first overall pick in the 2003 MLB Draft.

Stats are courtesy of Fangraphs