Blue Jays (12-9) vs Padres (11-12)
The Blue Jays wrap up their time in San Diego this afternoon, looking to earn the sweep over the Padres. Today’s game gets underway at 4:10 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
Chris Bassitt heads to the mound for the Jays, making his 5th start of the year. As his 2-2 record indicates, Bassitt has had two good starts this year and two bad ones. In his first two starts, he got knocked around early, giving up 9 runs on 15 hit and 5 walks over just 9.1 innings. Things have gotten a lot better since then though, as he pitched into the 7th inning each of his last two starts, surrendering just 1 run in both starts, lowering his season ERA to 4.03.
A bit of a concerning trend for Bassitt in the early going is the walks. While he walked 5 in his first couple games, he walked 6 in the following two games, and now boasts a 22:11 strikeout to walk ratio. The strikeouts are fine, pretty much one per inning and right in line with where he has been the last few years. But the walks are an outlier thus far, as his 11.2% rate is easily the worst of his career. So hopefully going forward he gets his walks under control.
Padres’ Starter
The Padres will send out a veteran right hander of their own in Joe Musgrove. Musgrove is off to a rough start to his season, coming into play with a 2-2 record and a 6.29 ERA. He isn’t getting strikeouts and he is walking a good amount of batters, coming into play today with a K%-BB% of just 8 after having that difference up over 19 in his first three seasons with the Padres. On top of that, he’s being hit around a fair bit more, not giving up the soft contact that he’s so used to.
It’s a bit of a concerning start to the season for Padres fans, as they have been treated to nothing but excellence from Musgrove through his first three seasons there. Through 459.2 innings from 2021 through 2023, Musgrove went 31-19 with a 3.05 ERA. That run ended in August of last year though, when he was shut down for the rest of the season with shoulder inflammation. Working back from likely has at least some connection to his early season struggles.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
Going for the sWWWeep #TOTHECORE pic.twitter.com/d4uCEY12Lp
— Toronto Blue Jays (@BlueJays) April 21, 2024
Padres’ Lineup
1 2B Xander Bogaerts
2 RF Fernando Tatis Jr.
3 1B Jake Cronenworth
4 DH Manny Machado
5 LF Jurickson Profar
6 SS Ha-Seong Kim
7 CF Jackson Merrill
8 C Luis Campusano
9 3B Tyler Wade
Yesterday’s Heroes
Patrick Bailey went 4-4 with a home run, 2 doubles and 3 RBI to take home the Monster Bat award in a pretty tight field. His big day helped the Giants beat the Diamondbacks 7-3.
Bryan De La Cruz hit a two run home run in the top of the 9th inning of the first game of a double header, giving his Marlins the 3-2 lead that they would ultimately manage to hold on to. The Marlins got the win thanks to De La Cruz’s a .622 WPA. The Cubs came back and won the second game 5-3 with De La Cruz putting up an 0-4, but he still gets the WPA King trophy for the day with a .527 total.
Three different pitchers threw at least 7 shutout innings last night, but since Luis Castillo did it against the Rockies and Zack Wheeler did it against the White Sox, the Pitcher of the Day trophy goes to Nestor Cortes who managed his feat against the Rays. Cortes gave up 6 hits and no walks while striking out 9 batters, but the Yankees’ offense was held off the board. It took 10 innings for the Rays to emerge victorious in this one, scoring 2 in the top of the 10th and holding on for the 2-0 win.
Find the Link
Find the link between Joe Musgrove and Esmil Rogers.