After his last outing, Edwin Jackson is due for one of his good ones (that’s just how he rolls), but I’m not a big fan of this matchup against Litsch. I want to love him and embrace him, but he still scares the daylights out of me on the mound. That happens when you’ve got a pitcher who will either throw a 4-hit shutout or allow 8 runs in 3 innings of work, with pretty much nothing in-between.
What to watch for: Eric Hinske owns Jesse Litsch. 5-for-10 with 2 doubles, a triple, and an RBI. With Carl Crawford and Akinori Iwamura going a combined 8-for-17 against him at the top of the order, maybe tonight’s the night you consider shuffling the lineup and dropping Pena to 5th or 6th and having Hinske bat 4th.
Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
Edwin Jackson - Jackson continues to take one step forward and two steps back. On Friday night against the Red Sox, the hard-throwing right-hander once again was unable to stay away from the big inning, as he took his third loss of the season after surrendering five runs in the fourth inning. Jackson has electric stuff, which brings the expectations of future greatness and keeps him in the rotation. But inconsistency has plagued him time and again. He is 0-2 with a 4.22 ERA in six career appearances against the Blue Jays.
(Editor’s Note: I don’t think it’s fair to say Edwin’s taking one step forward and two steps back; he’s not REGRESSING this season. He’s still been better than he’s been in the past. I suspect it’s Bill Chastain that wrote this, since he’s good with the cliches like that.)
Jesse Litsch - Litsch turned in 7 1/3 strong innings en route to a win over the White Sox on Saturday. The 23-year-old right-hander yielded two runs on five hits, striking out three and walking none. Over his past two starts, Litsch has gone 2-0 with a 1.89 ERA, seven strikeouts and no walks. That’s a drastic contrast to his previous two outings, in which he went 0-1 with a 9.72 ERA, allowing nine runs on 17 hits in 8 1/3 innings. In his career against the Rays, Litsch has gone 1-2 with a 3.86 ERA in four starts.
Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Jesse Litsch.
View the game preview from Baseball Reference.
| TAMPA BAY RAYS |
TORONTO BLUE JAYS |
| 2B - Akinori Iwamura | RF - Alex Rios |
| DH - Carl Crawford | LF - Shannon Stewart |
| CF - B.J. Upton | 3B - Scott Rolen |
| 1B - Carlos Pena | DH - Matt Stairs |
| RF - Eric Hinske | CF - Vernon Wells |
| C - Dioner Navarro | 1B - Lyle Overbay |
| RF - Gabe Gross | 2B - Aaron Hill |
| LF - Nathan Haynes | C - Gregg Zaun |
| SS - Jason Bartlett | SS - Marco Scutaro |
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Tags: Blue Jays
May 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Longoria not starting tonight; K-Pena starting at 1B and batting cleanup. CC at DH.
I predict tonight’s hot bats will be Hinske and Navi; NOT bat will be Pena and Aki.
Which EJaX will play tonight?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:35 pm
Why is Maddon not playing Gomes? Yes, he does strike out a lot, but he is capable of hitting 30 HRs and driving in 80-100 RBIs a year. Given the shortfall in RF, why not have given him a shot? He is losing ABs; are they going to trade him this year or what?
May 8th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Three way tie for MVP: EJax, Howell and Navi. They each earned it.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:17 pm
all I have to say is that was epic, I fell bad for Edwin, he was awesome-he let his defense do the work…
Dan Wheeeler is my flipping hero, that was soooo sick-
Percy-eeeeh nights like that happen, if it were Al Reyes last year the winning run wouldve scored…
tight game tho…. money all the way
May 8th, 2008 at 10:37 pm
Navi came through as I predicted, but not Hinske.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
Grand Slam, what a way to go!