Game #135 Preview: White vs Bradish

After a huge double header sweep yesterday, the Blue Jays will look to keep the pressure on the Orioles with the third game of their four game series set to go this evening. The weather is a bit sketchy once again, but the forecast does ease up ahead of the hopeful 7:05 ET start time.

Blue Jays’ Starter

Mitch White will get the ball for the Jays, hoping to bounce back from a couple of very bad outings. Against the Angels and Cubs his last two times out, he has combined to allow 13 runs over 9.2 innings, surrendering 16 hits and 4 walks while striking out 10. Those two starts have really tainted his Jays’ tenure, as through 5 starts in Blue Jays’ blue, he is now 0-3 with a 7.04 ERA through 23.0 innings.

Orioles’ Starter

The Blue Jays will get their fourth look of the season at young right hander Kyle Bradish. This will be the rookie’s 18th start at the big league level, and through 87 innings this year, he carries a 3-5 record with a 5.17 ERA. His FIP of 4.73 is a bit better, and is strong based on roughly league average K/9 and BB/9 rates. But it’s the home run rate of 1.55 per 9 innings that has hurt him the most.

In his 3 starts against the Jays, he is 0-1 with a 6.91 ERA over 14.1 innings. He has surrendered 11 runs on 20 hits and 7 walks, striking out 12. The Blue Jays have touched him up for a pair of home runs as well, one by Bo Bichette on August 9, and one by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. on August 15.

Blue Jays’ Lineup

Bo Bichette had a hell of a day yesterday, immediately paying dividends to his move up the lineup. He hit 3rd yesterday for the first time since May, although before that he was hitting 2nd. He was then moved down to 4th and then 5th, and has gotten most of his at bats over the last couple months out of those two spots in the order. But he’s back to 3rd now, and will probably be for a while.

Cavan Biggio is riding a bit of a hot streak right now. He has a 6 game hitting streak going, over which he has 3 home runs and a double. He’s been hitting well enough against righties that he should have worked himself back into a platoon against Santiago Espinal, who has really dominated lefties this year, but not so much the righties. Hopefully we get that the rest of the way.

Orioles’ Lineup

At risk of jinxing it, the Jays have reigned in Ryan Mountcastle a bit. They held him to a 1-7 day yesterday with a double and a walk, and now has just 1 hit in his last 16 at bats against the Jays. He’s still hitting a ridiculous .318/.375/.773 in 48 PA against Blue Jays’ pitchers this year though.

A fun stat from yesterday - in the first game yesterday, Anthony Santander had the 7th multi-homer game of his career. The Orioles are 0-7 in those games, the longest such streak in baseball history.

A righty on the mound for the Jays means that Rougned Odor and Cedric Mullins probably get the starts. With Odor at 2B, Gunnar Henderson will slide around the infield, probably getting the start at 3B.

Yesterday’s Heroes

Bo Bichette, with his 6-10 day that included a trio of home runs and 7 RBI, easily takes home the Monster Bat award. But he also gets the WPA King trophy as well, contributing .465 WPA over the two games, with .400 of that coming in the second game of the Jays’ double header sweep.

Ryne Nelson made his Major League debut for the Diamondbacks yesterday, and he gets to walk home with the Pitcher of the Day honours as part of it. Nelson held the Padres off the board for 7 innings, giving up just 4 hits while striking out 7. He also got his first MLB win, as the D-backs beat the Padres 5-0.

Find the Link

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Stats retrieved from Fangraphs and Baseball Savant