Pitching Duels

NYY-1, CLE-0
CC Sabathia continues turning his season around with an excellent start (8 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 BB 8 K). He still took the loss, since Chien-Ming Wang was better (7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 9 K). Wang has upped his K-rate this year, which bodes well for his future. The only run on the board came courtesy of a Melky Cabrera home run. Melky is still hitting 8th, despite a 291 / 356 / 506 line with 5 HR. That power is not something I expected from him, and makes Cabrera a legitimate starting center fielder.

WSH-2, CHC-0
This game was similar to the above one. Chicago's lefty starter Ted Lilly started off the year poorly, but pitched well (6 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 BB, 7 K) and still got the loss. John Lannon continued and improbable scoreless streak (19 innings now) going 7 innings and giving up 4 hits and 4 walks, while K'ing 3. Ryan Zimmerman's bad 2008 continued with an 0-4, 3 K day.

TBR-3, BOS-0
The Rays completed their sweep of the Red Sox behind a fantastic start by James Shields (9 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 7 K). Josh Beckett was the hard luck loser in this one (7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 BB, 13 K), giving up a home run to Evan Longoria.

ARI-2, SDP-1
This was a battle of two of the best in baseball, and both guys brought their A games. Jake Peavy (7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 3 BB, 9 K) took his first loss of the year and actually raised his ERA to 2.09. The winner, for the sixth time this year, was Brandon Webb (6 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 4 BB, 5 K) who had shaky control but lowered his ERA to 1.98. A two run homer from Chris Snyder was all he needed today, but with the way the D'Backs put runs on the board, Webb looks like a near lock for 20 wins (at least).

CIN-10, SFG-1
I'm throwing this one in to show the other side of the coin. While Reds' starter Edison Volquez continued to dominate (7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 3 BB, 10 K) and now sits at 4-0 with a 1.23 ERA, Giants' veteran Barry Zito continued to pitch really, really poorly (3 IP, 7 H, 8 R, 3 BB, 1 K). The former Cy Young winner is now 0-6 with a 7.53 ERA and is allowing almost two baserunners an inning. With the way the Giants put runs on the board, Zito looks like a near lock to lose 20 games (with that contract they'll keep running him out there, and it doesn't look like his performance will improve anytime soon). When Noah Lowry comes back, Zito will become easily the highest paid #5 starter ever (and I think he'll hold that record for a while), as Matt Cain (5.27 ERA, but 26 K's) and Tim Lincecum (4-0, 1.23 ERA, 36 K's) have been joined by former top prospect Jonathan Sanchez (3.54 ERA, and also 36 K's) at the top of a very good young rotation.