 |  |
| Oswalt | Wainwright |
| 0-1, 3.86 | 0-0, 3.38 |
Well, according to Cecil Cooper, today’s starter is "the ace of the National League." Oswalt’s a really good pitcher but he’s hardly the league’s best. Put down the Sharpie, Cecil. However, if he pitched only against the Cardinals, he might be the ace of the league. For his career, Oswalt is 9-6 w/ a 2.90 ERA against the home team. He’s struck out 6.8 batters per 9 IP and has a K/BB ratio of 3.76. Our career OBP against him is .296 and our career OPS is .668. That’s not a small sample size either. We’re talking 24 starts and 164.2 IP. He could win the ERA title w/ those numbers. At least we’re not the Reds, against whom he’s an astounding 23-1 w/ a 2.47 career ERA.
Wainer’s back on the mound after being only OK in the season opener Monday. He went 5 and gave up 2 ER, walking 5 and striking out 7. He did get 11 swinging strikes so he must’ve had something working for him but he’s going to have to do a better job of throwing strikes today in order to keep us in the game. With Oswalt today and another – our 4th in 7 game games – lefty on the mound tomorrow, we’re facing the prospect of going 3-4 in our opening homestand against the Pirates and Astros. We’ve struggled some against lefties this year so let’s take advantage of the fact that we get a righty today – league ace or not!