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After taking the win in the rain last night, the Blue Jays will go for their second win in a row against Cleveland this afternoon. Gametime is set for 4:10 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Ross Stripling will go for the Blue Jays, and he’s earned his way back into the traditional starter role. His last outing, he followed Opener Trent Thornton (who gave up 5 runs in his inning of work) and Stripling did nothing short of his best work as a Blue Jay. He worked 7 scoreless innings, allowing just 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 7 batters. He allowed the team the opportunity to get back into the game, forcing extra innings, where the bullpen blew it.
Even with that outing, Stripling is still 0-3 with a 5.63 ERA over 32 innings. He is doing a fantastic job getting strikeouts (10.13 per 9 innings) a good job limiting walks (2.81 per 9 innings) but has been terrible when it comes to preventing home runs. He has allowed 7 in his 32 innings, and while most of those have come in small ballparks, it’s still a bad rate.
Cleveland’s Starter
Cleveland will trot out rookie Sam Hentges for this one (pronounced HENT-jess, so a bit different than the very similarly spelled Hentgen). Hentges entered the season as Cleveland’s 25th prospect by MLB Pipeline, and their 13th prospect by Fangraphs.
Hentges has made 7 appearances including 3 starts so far this year, and has pitched to a 1-1 record and a 6.20 ERA over 20.1 innings. He has struck out 22 batters so far, but that’s the end of his good numbers. He has surrendered 28 hits and walked 12 for a nearly 2.00 WHIP. He has also allowed 5 home runs and also thrown 5 wild pitches.
The lefty Hentges has a power fastball that he throws about half the time, and it’s the pitch that has been hit the most. He is averaging about 95mph with it, but he’s also given up a .438 batting average against that pitch, and 4 of his home runs and 4 doubles. His other 2 pitches, the curveball, and slider are used fairly evenly, although it is the curveball that he has gotten most of his strikeouts with.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
May update when lineups are announced
Cleveland’s Lineup
May update when lineups are announced
Yesterday’s Heroes
Joe Panik, with his 4-4 showing and a home run with 3 RBI gets the Monster Bat award. Not a guy I would have expected to see get this award, but I’m happy he did.
Robbie Grossman gets the WPA King with probably the highest WPA of the year with a .890 mark. He had a single in 3rd, a big walk in the 8th, but the big blow came in the 10th. With 2 out and 2 strikes (arguably 3, but a favourable call helped him), he hit a walk-off, 2-run home run to give the Tigers the 3-2 win over the Yankees.
Sean Manaea went 6.2 solid innings to pick up the Pitcher of the Day award. He allowed 1 run on 6 hits and 3 walks, striking out 8. He did not get the win though as the run he allowed made it a 1-1 tie in the top of the 7th, and the Athletics re-took the lead in the bottom half after he was no longer the pitcher of record. But the A’s still beat the Angels 3-1.
Find the Link
Find the link between Eddie Rosario and Jimmy Rollins.