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Game 5: St. Louis Cardinals at Cincinnati Reds, Apr 9, 2012 6:10 PM CDT


Jake Westbrook

#35 / Pitcher / St. Louis Cardinals

6-3

215

R

R

Sep 29, 1977



Homer Bailey

#34 / Pitcher / Cincinnati Reds

6-3

210

R

R

May 03, 1986


The pitching matchup for tonight is an interesting contrast in styles. Jake Westbrook is something of a posterboy for the deficiencies that a good sinker can paper over. He has a very low strikeout rate (< 6K/9IP) and just a mediocre walk rate (~3BB/9IP). What Westbrook does is pound the zone with his fastball inducing above average contact (85% compared to an 80% league average in 2011) that results in groundballs nearly 60% of the time.

Homer Bailey, however, is a pronounced flyball pitcher with a groundball rate that hovers around 40%. Bailey strikes out considerably more batters to compensate. Another interesting aside is that Bailey lacks a real changeup (according to pitch f/x classification) instead using a curveball to neutralize opposite handed hitters. The right handers in the lineup should watch for the slider if Bailey is ahead in the count.