Every once in a while, you get treated to a marquee pitching matchup in baseball. Tonight would be one of those nights, as James Shields looks to build on his home dominance against one of the other great young hurlers in the game in Ervin Santana. This could very well be a preview of a playoff pitching matchup down the line, so you can bet there will be plenty of interested parties in both dugouts for this one.
For the Rays, this is an important game on multiple fronts: for starters, a win and the team guarantees a win in this series against the Angels. Moreover, the Rays already have built up a psychological edge, having won all 4 games at The Trop so far this season. If (and that’s still a huge IF) the Rays can sweep this series from the Halos as well, imagine the kind of confidence the team will have heading into a potential ALCS match-up against them.
What to watch for: What stupid thing will B.J. Upton do tonight? (I kid, I kid…)
Ervin Santana is 9-2 on the road, while James Shields is 7-1 at home. The difference? Shields’ home ERA is 2.21 compared to Santana’s road number, which is closer to 3.50. I like Shields to absolutely dominate tonight; the Angels’ offense just doesn’t scare me THAT much.
Scouting Report on today’s starters from MLB.com:
James Shields – Shields received a no-decision Thursday afternoon at Oakland when he allowed four runs on five hits in five innings. Uncharacteristic of Shields’ outing were the five walks. The 26-year-old right-hander’s best pitch has always been his changeup, but he also has a plus fastball and curve and he’s added a cutter that has helped him throw inside to left-handers. He is 3-2 with a 3.40 ERA in six career starts against the Angels. In 38 career starts at Tropicana Field, Shields is 17-7 with a 3.18 ERA.
Ervin Santana – He didn’t get a win to show for it, but it was another strong effort by Santana, who gave up three earned runs in 6 1/3 innings with seven strikeouts and one walk on Wednesday night against the Mariners. He has yielded only eight walks while striking out 45 hitters in his past six outings, covering 40 1/3 innings. He seems to be getting stronger as the season heads toward the stretch. Santana is 3-3 in seven career outings against the Rays, with a 6.21 ERA. They reached him for nine hits and five runs in 5 2/3 innings earlier this year in a no-decision at Tropicana Field.
Check out the Rays’ career numbers against Ervin Santana.
View the game preview from Baseball Reference.
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Be sure to join us in the chat room for some good Rays talk during the game!!!
Tags: Angels
August 20th, 2008 at 9:01 am
Great game last night! Shields was fun to watch. He is our ace of the staff right now, and Garza is the #2. Kaz is a 3/4 right now, and needs to straighten out his stuff soon. Our team is getting back to just doing whatever it takes to win games, and we’re looking strong again. Aybar has played great, and has proved he deserves to stay on the roster when Longo returns. And we did it last night despite what might have been the worst call by an umpire I have ever seen at the Major League-level. Maddon did a great job in defending Upton, and I’m glad he finally showed a little fire when getting tossed. It was great to see the animation on his face. Let’s hope our team continues to keep this rolling right into the playoffs.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Can I hear some predictions on the Rays’ win total for the regular season?