Game #111 Preview: Berríos vs Kremer

The Blue Jays will do their best to try to avoid a horrible sweep this evening, as they play the third and final game in Baltimore against the Orioles. Today’s game is once again set for 7:05 ET, in advance of tomorrow’s off day.

Blue Jays’ Starter

José Berríos will head to the mound for the Jays, making his team leading 23rd start of the year. With the volume of starts under his belt, he has certainly seen a range of outcomes, swinging between fairly extreme ends without expectation. Two starts ago, he threw 7 great innings, allowing just 1 run. Last start, he made it just 3.2 innings, allowing 5 runs.

The only consistent things from start to start for him seem to be walks and home runs. He has just 3 starts this year where he hasn’t allowed a walk, but only once has he allowed 3. Same for home runs, where he has allowed at least 1 in all but 5 starts this year, but only once has he allowed 3. As a result, he is 8-4 with a 5.19 ERA and 4.83 FIP, nowhere near what the Jays were hoping to get out of him.

This will be Berríos’ second start against the Orioles this year, and the results of his first one were a lot closer to good. He made it through 7 innings, allowing 3 runs on just 3 hits, striking out 8. It was one of the few games he didn’t walk any, but he did surrender a pair of home runs, one unsurprisingly by Ryan Mountcastle and the other being the first of Adley Rutschman’s career.

Orioles’ Starter

Dean Kremer will get the ball for the Orioles, making his 12th start of the season after missing the first couple months of the season on the IL with an oblique injury. Now that he’s back, he is having a very strong season. Through a career high 57.2 innings, he is 4-3 with a 3.43 ERA, and his 3.91 FIP isn’t far off that. He has cut his walk rate significantly from recent years, down to 2.18 per 9 innings. He just doesn’t strike many batters out, with just 43 so far this year.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Many Blue Jays have hit Kremer hard in their limited action over the last couple seasons, so hopefully that shows up today, as they really could use a blowout victory to salvage something on this road trip. Vladimir Guerrero Jr. is 2-5 with a pair of home runs. Lourdes Gurriel Jr. is 2-3 with a pair of home runs. Danny Jansen is 1-2 with a home run as well.

On Jansen, he’ll be the one behind the plate catching Berríos again today. Alejandro Kirk caught yesterday chipped in 3 hits, so he’s certainly over his slump, and is likely to be the DH again today.

Teoscar Hernández got the rare full day off yesterday, but he’s likely to be back in the lineup today.

Orioles’ Lineup

Rougned Odor and Terrin Vavra were in the starting lineup yesterday after sitting Monday against the left handed Kikuchi. They both drove in a pair of runs off righties yesterday, helping to seal the win. Both will likely be back in the lineup again today against the right handed Berríos.

Ryan Mountcastle continued his demolition of Blue Jays’ pitchers yesterday, knocking a pair of doubles. He now has 5 consecutive multi-hit games against the Jays, and is now hitting .361/.414/.730 in 133 career plate appearances against the Jays.

The Blue Jays have at least managed to keep Adley Rutschman down somewhat in this series, as he is just 1-6 with a single, although the 3 walks still makes this a .444 OBP in his 2 games.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Randal Grichuk went 5-5 with a home run and 4 singles yesterday, getting himself the Monster Bat along the way. His career night at the plate helped his Rockies to the 16-5 win over the Cardinals.

The Yankees and Mariners played a hell of a game yesterday, holding each other off the scoreboard until the bottom of the 13th inning when the Mariners finally won the game on a two-out bases loaded single. Mariners’ starter Luis Castillo, making his first start in front of his new fans, dominated the Yankees over 8 innings. He gave up just 3 hits and 2 walks striking out 7 to pick up the Pitcher of the Day honours. After that, four relievers held the Yankees hitless and scoreless through the next 5 innings, with Matt Brash getting the last 2. And for every top half of extra innings a pitcher makes it through, that’s about .2995 WPA. So for Brash who went 2 innings, he gets the WPA King trophy with a .599 mark.

Find the Link

Find the link between Dean Kremer and Anthony Bass.

Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant