 |  |
| Parra | Wellemeyer |
| 2-4, 4.82 | 3-3, 5.80 |
Now that’s more like it. Wainwright was fantastic yesterday – 7 Ks, 12 swinging strikes, 12 ground balls, just 2 line drives given up. From a pitching perspective, it’s exactly the way they draw it up before the game (save 1 pitch to Corey Hart). From an offensive standpoint, how in the hell can this team not hit Jeff Suppan? All we get are 6 singles and 2 walks in 7 innings off him? It’s his longest outing of the year – the first time he’s gotten at least a 2nd out in the 7th inning – and the only time he’s given up 0 ER for the game. His game score was 65 (Wainwright’s was 79, btw). Last year, he only had 3 starts w/ a game score of 65 or higher. He just isn’t a good pitcher anymore and we don’t have the excuse of having faced a pitcher we’ve never seen before. I guess you have a pretty good chance at a good outing if you’re able to induce 18 ground balls.
Well, it’s Wellemeyer time again. I’m getting tired of writing about him, frankly. There’s not that much left to say but I’ll find something. In the first inning, teams have a .938 OPS against him. They’re reaching base at a .438 clip. In the 2nd inning, their OPS is 1.093 and their OBP is .548. He’s walked 12 batters out of 75 PAs in the first 2 innings. In other words, he’s walked an astounding 16% of all the batters he’s faced in the first two innings. That’s 12 walks in 14 IP – a BB/9 of 7.71 in the first 2 innings. After the second inning, he’s walked just 2 batters ALL SEASON!!!!! He’s given up 14 of his 27 runs in the first 2 innings. More than half the runs he’s given up have come in the first 2 innings! His K/BB ratio in innings 1-3 is 0.75. In innings 4-6, it’s 6.00. I guess we’ll know pretty quickly what kind of an afternoon we’re in for. Interestingly, he’s yet to give up a homer in the first 2 innings. In fact, he hasn’t yet given up a homer before the 5th (knock on wood!). For what it’s worth, he’s been much better (.723 OPS) in his 2 day starts than he has in his 5 night starts (.969 OPS). Maybe we can hope for a pretty good outing today.