Jays vs. Rangers, Aug 31 to Sep 1

[tsherkin]

Aug 31 @ Texas 20:05 Cecil vs. Holland

Sep 1 @ Texas 17:05 Rzepczynski vs. Nippert

Sep 1 @ Texas 20:05 Tallet vs. McCarthy


A double-header tomorrow. Must be a schedule make-up from earlier.

Cecil is apparently starting tonight. Can't imagine he'll go deep, what with the knee issues and him approaching the big limit.

Holland isn't having a great season, but he's also a 22 year-old left-handed rookie; sound familiar? He's getting roughed up this year with a WHIP of 1.40 and an ERA of 4.95, so we should be able to go at him, unless he's got his good stuff. This is the guy rated just behind Neftali Feliz in their system, so when he's on, he's "on." He had a complete game shutout of the Angels earlier this year. He's got velocity and he can keep it late into a game. Historically, he's shown he can get up to 97 mph, but he averages around 93 mph. Slider, curve, changeup. Bit of tail and sink to his heater, big difference in horizontal movement between the heater and the slider, apparently he's got a 2-seamer that he throws at 89 mph that he doesn't use too often and it sinks about an inch more than his 4-seam.

Nippert versus Zep should be interesting, but again, we probably won't let our guy go for longer than 5 or 6 innings because of concerns about pushing him too far, which probably means we'll tap DEEP into our pen this whole series, because Tallet almost assuredly won't go more than 5 innings or so... nor do we want him to.

Nippert's a 6'8 RHP in his 5th season. Hovers around 93 mph on his heater. Throws a curve and a change, too. His fastball tails a lot, his changeup even more. His heater doesn't sink too much but his changeup drops a lot. He gets hit pretty hard (in his good years, every other year, his WHIP is around 1.4+) and he walks a LOT of batters. He's not getting tagged with a baBIP over .300 this year, though, so he's a decent back-end pitcher. Nothing special, so if we're patient, we should hammer him. He's 28, has some room to improve, but he's been around a while and he does consistently get GB% over 40%. He's kept his homer rate down this year, which has been big.

McCarthy's another tall RHP, 6'7. 4-seamer, curveball. Pretty young, too, 26. 5th year guy, heater around 89 mph. Curve and a change, though he's apparently mixing in a slider this year. He had a stress fracture at the beginning of June (similar to an older injury he's had before) and hasn't pitched since, so he may not pitch. If he's back and feeling good, he's decent but vulnerable to the long ball, gives up lots of hits. Good sink on his curveball, a little tail to his heater but it doesn't really move down at all. It'll be interesting to see if he pitches, because it's been nearly three months since he last stepped on the mound.

[tsherkin]

From the ESPN preview:

This time, [Holland will] face a struggling Blue Jays lineup that has scored three or fewer runs nine times in the last 14 games, with the team going 3-11 over that span. Toronto (58-70) was blanked by journeyman Paul Byrd and the Boston bullpen in a 7-0 loss Sunday.

And also:

Toronto's starters have also struggled, with ace Roy Halladay losing his third straight start Sunday. Brett Cecil's woes have been even more profound, as he has allowed 12 runs -- nine earned -- in 7 2/3 innings in his last two starts. He didn't get out of the fourth inning in a 7-3 loss to Tampa Bay on Tuesday.

Cecil's never faced the Rangers, we're 4-2 against Texas this year, but the last game we played against them was when we were still over .500 on the year, so it's been a while. V-Scrub is hitting .253 now. ESPN took a dig at him when they let that gem loose; "high-priced outfielder Vernon Wells" and so on.

Cito has said that Cecil has been up high in the zone too much lately, not getting the ball down, which is when he gets the best sink and run on his fastball. After his last start, I said soemthing similar to what Cito was saying: he's up high too much, not getting his stuff down. Schad noted that he had some fatigue, a wonky knee, he's a rook... we shouldn't be expected a pretty game to be pitched by any of these guys. He's got a pair of small tears in his MCL, but he'll have had 5 days rest before this start (his last was the 25th). He's given up 4+ runs in 3 of his 4 starts, so he's definitely not projected to be in top form.

Well, he's getting experience, I suppose. Maybe the rest and whatever treatment/rehab he's been doing will help him get back on track.

[zilby]

added to the race tsherkin.

go jays!

[tsherkin]

Thanks, zilby.

So this is going to be an interesting little series; the Rangers' offense has been flagging this year because of Hamilton's injury but their pitching and defense have been a lot better than they were previously, which is neat. We're flailing around like idiots on offense over the last little while, so we're going to be in a bit of trouble, I think, especially since we're throwing fatigued young pitchers at them. I expect them to hit us pretty well, and while I hope we do the same to them, it seems unlikely.

[Brinbe]

Offense getting off to a great start tonight.

[tsherkin]

Wow!

[youngLion]

Alright so I just moved today, and I've spent the last few hours setting the new apt up with the game on in the background.... When the hell did all these runs cross the plate?

[tsherkin]

Scoot singled and Hill doubled to open the game, 1-0. 4 more runs that inning and another in the 3rd. We're hammering Holland bad.

Cecil's looked good so far; no velocity at all, but it's working, so it's solid.

[s e n s i]

Bases juuuiced. Spoiler can be fun sometimes.

[tsherkin]

Scoot hit... AGAIN!

[Brinbe]

GAAWD DAAAMN LINDD

[s e n s i]

OUUUUUCH!

[tsherkin]

WOOT!!!!! LIND!!!

EDIT: What a way to bust out of a team slump, eh? Jump on the young kid. Hehe.

[s e n s i]

Hahahaha my bro wanted to download some XBOX game online...I told him to wait a sec cause Lind is gonna jack a grand slam...and whaddya know! Opposite field shat!

[tsherkin]

Barajas is a monster, apparently. He's now got the second-best HR output of his career this season. That's also 7 homers for him this month in 69 at-bats (or about a homer every ten at-bats), though he's hitting .209 this month, has struck out 13 times and only walked 3 times.

But damn, he's clicking today, and it's awesome! We're beating the HELL out of them!

[tsherkin]

Eh, the expected 5th-inning break-down by Cecil. Single, single, RBI single, fielder's choice, 2-RBI triple, sac fly for the fourth run.

Terrible inning. 4 of his 6 hits allowed, all four earned runs. BUT, 4 awesome innings before that and an offensive explosion that still has us 7 runs ahead. I can't believe I just wrote that, seeing us score 7 runs is rare enough of late, that we're 7 runs AHEAD is AWESOME.

EDIT: Oh, weak, infield single...

EDIT: And another single. That's now 6 hits in the inning. Cecil needs to be done now, I think; no sense pushing him further.

[s e n s i]

Woooooow. Of course, right?

[Brinbe]

hahahaha, just have to make it interesting, don't we? jeez <_<

[Throwback24]

Who didn't see that coming.

[tsherkin]

And as I say Cecil needs to be done, he lets loose a 3-run jack. He's now officially pitching a game nearly as bad as did Holland, and has given up 7 hits for 7 runs in a single inning, which means 9 hits and 7 runs over the course of his 4.2 IP.

He needs to be out of the game before our lead goes away, as sizeable as it was.