Game #12 Preview: Kluber vs Stripling

The Blue Jays will look to win their second series against the Yankees in the early going, trying to win the rubber match of this 3 game series in Dunedin. Today’s game is an early one, so prepare those excuses as this one starts at 1:07 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Ross Stripling will make his 3rd start of the season, and second against the Yankees. He has been hit early and often so far this year, allowing 13 hits in his 8.1 innings. While he has limited the walks to 3 and home runs to 2, the high volume of hits has resulted in 7 earned runs against him, which is definitely a lot more than one would like.

In his first start against the Yankees, he danced around a fair bit of danger, only allowing 2 runs while still in the game, although a bequeathed run also scored. But he stranded 2 runners in the 1st, 2 runners in the 2nd, 1 runner in the 3rd, and left 2 runners on for Tyler Chatwood to deal with. He threw 77 pitches, and he’ll probably need to throw a lot fewer high stress pitches if he wants to not tire so early.

Yankees’ Starter

Corey Kluber will make his 3rd start as a Yankee this afternoon, still looking to pick up his first win. He would probably have a win in his first game against Stripling and the Jays, if not for the antiquated win rules. He made it through 4+ innings, allowing an earned run and an unearned run, but left with a lead the Yankees wouldn’t relinquish. He allowed a lot of traffic on the bases, but like the Yankee batters, the Jays’ batters couldn’t capitalize. The Jays’ bats managed 5 hits and 3 walks, with Marcus Semien ending Kluber’s day with a leadoff home run in the 5th.

Kluber’s second start didn’t go nearly as well. He lasted just 2.1 innings against the Rays, getting chased after allowing 5 runs (although just 3 earned) on 5 hits and 2 walks. The Rays bats seemed to have a bit better luck grouping their hits to score the runners compared to the Jays.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Rowdy hit his first home run yesterday! His continual hard hits have turned into a home run for him, his second hit of the season, and it’s great to see him starting to have a little more success at the plate. Now he just needs to keep this high up, and put together a string of good plate appearances. But I would imagine he has at least until Teoscar comes back from his Covid diagnosis to get into a groove and show that he be a contributor to this team.

Joe Panik hasn’t started a game in almost a week now, and I would imagine that today’s day game after the night game would mean he’ll be out there.

Also coming off a night game, I would guess that we’ll see Danny Jansen on the bench, with Alejandro Kirk getting the start. Neither are hitting so far this year and while Jansen has at least been putting together a strong process at the plate, his contact quality isn’t getting results. I wouldn’t be upset to see Kirk get a few more starts than he has been.

Yankees’ Lineup

Gleyber Torres sat out yesterday’s game with a jammed ring finger, and with their off day tomorrow, the Yankees may opt to give him today off so he has 3 days to help recover and get back to normal. I would do that anyway, but it seems the expectation is that he will be back in the lineup today.

I wouldn’t be surprised to see one of Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton given a day off today to give a bit of an extended break. The oft-injured hulking sluggers should probably be given ample opportunity to rest up if the Yankees want to have a better chance at keeping them healthy.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Adam Duvall had a huge game, picking up the Monster Bat award after a 4-5 showing, including a pair of home runs and a double, scoring 4 times and driving in 7. That showing really helped his Marlins in the 14-8 slugfest win over Atlanta.

Shane Bieber threw 9 shutout innings yesterday, but doesn’t get credited with a complete game shutout, as it took 10 innings for Cleveland to win. However, his superb outing that included just 3 hits and a walk with 11 strikeouts easily gets him the Pitcher of the Day award. And when you throw 9 shutout innings in a scoreless game, you’re going to really pad your WPA stat, which Bieber used to win the WPA King title with a very impressive .694 mark. Bieber did come out of the battle with a win as well, as he pitched the bottom of the 9th, and Cleveland scored 2 in the top of the 10th to secure the 2-0 win over the White Sox.

Find the Link

Find the link between Kluber and Joey Votto.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant