Game #72 Preview: Berríos vs. González

After splitting the first two, the Blue Jays will look to win the series against the hometown Brewers this afternoon. Gametime is set for 2:10 ET.

Blue Jays’ Starter

José Berríos will go for the Jays, making his 15th start of the year. His overall numbers are nowhere near anyone was hoping or expecting for him, coming into play with a 5-3 record, a 5.11 ERA and a 4.90 FIP. He just isn’t getting strikeouts like previous seasons with just 63 in 75.2 innings, and he has been lit up on the home run front, currently tied for the 6th most in all of baseball with 15 home runs allowed this year.

Maybe the most disheartening part of Berríos’ season seems to be that just when it seems like he’s starting to figure it out, he has a really bad start. Prior to his last outing, he had a string of 3 starts where he threw 22 innings, allowing 6 runs on 11 hits and 3 walks, with 26 strikeouts. Then he followed that up on Monday with a 4 inning outing where he allowed 6 runs on 9 hits and a walk, striking out just 1 batter and allowing 3 home runs. The front of the rotation stuff is still there, but he’s struggling to find it with any kind of consistency.

Brewers’ Starter

Chi Chi González will go for the Brewers, making his second start for them since being claimed off waivers from the Twins a couple weeks ago where he also made two starts. After spending the previous few seasons in Colorado getting lit up, there was hope for González a bit getting out of the very unfriendly confines of Coors, but it hasn’t been good for him so far this year either. In his 11 innings in the Majors so far this year, he has been touched up for 9 runs on 16 hits, although he has allowed just 1 walk. The 6 strikeouts are a bit low, and the 3 home runs have also hurt him a lot.

One of González’ three starts this year came against the Blue Jays when González was still with the Twins, back on June 3 when he made his first start this year. The Blue Jays touched him up for a pair of runs in the first inning on a George Springer home run and a Teoscar Hernández single to score a Bo Bichette double. After a clean second inning, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a home run off him in the third innings, and that was the last one González pitched. In total, 3 innings, 3 runs, 4 hits and 1 strikeout.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Kirk back behind the plate. And George Springer back in CF!!!

Brewers’ Lineup

They didn’t post it before I had to leave, so keep checking https://twitter.com/Brewers

Yesterday’s Heroes

Tony Kemp went 3-5 with a home run and a pair of doubles, scoring 3 times and driving in a pair to pick up the Monster Bat award. Kemp helped his Athletics beat the Royals 9-7.

Isaac Parades finished up strong for the Rays last night, hitting a solo home run in the bottom of the 8th to bring them within one before punching their ticket home with a 2-out 2-run walk-off single in the bottom of the 9th to beat the visiting Pirates 6-5. Parades for his part gets the WPA King trophy with a .828 WPA on the day.

Cristian Javier got the first 7 innings of no-hit ball against the Yankees, and while his bullpen finished the job, it’s Javier that gets the Pitcher of the Day award. Through his 7 no-hit innings, he allowed just 1 walk while striking out 13. He obviously gets the win as well, as his Astros’ no-hit the Yankees and beat them 3-0.

Find the Link

Find the link between the recently recalled Pablo Reyes and the tallest shortstop in the history of MLB.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant