Blue Jays (13-12) vs Royals (15-10)
After another listless loss last night, the Blue Jays wrap up their series this afternoon looking to salvage a split with the hometown Royals. It’s an early weekday start today, with first pitch set for 2:10 ET.
Blue Jays’ Starter
The Blue Jays have the right starter on the mound in hopes of salvaging the series split in José Berríos, a pitcher in the midst of an incredible hot streak of 21.2 scoreless innings. Berríos is looking to become MLB’s first 5 game winner of the year, coming into action with a 4-0 record and a miniscule 0.85 ERA. He has been a treat to watch this year, dominating lineups a lot of the time, and finding ways to dance out of trouble if he does find his way there.
Berríos’ batted ball against profile so far this year is notably different than years past. He has gone from someone with nearly neutral flyball-groundball rates, but this year he has bumped his GB% to 50.6%. And on top of that, of the remaining flyballs that he is giving up, he is getting pop ups on nearly a quarter of them. And to top it all off, his soft contact rate of 24.7% is one of the highest in all of baseball. A pitcher that can keep the ball on the ground, induce popups like prime Marco Estrada and generate a good amount of weak contact is going to put some pretty great numbers.
Royals’ Starter
The Royals will counter with young fireballer Cole Ragans, also making his 6th start of the season. After coming over to the Royals last year looking like a completely different pitcher than what the Rangers ever knew, Ragans brought a lot of hope to this year’s Royals’ rotation, earning the opening day start against the Twins. The results haven’t quite been what the Royals were hoping for, coming into play with a 0-2 record and a 4.32 ERA.
Ragan’s FIP is fantastic though, coming into today at an MLB-best 1.99 (among the 82 qualified pitchers). His 33 strikeouts against 7 walks is a great ratio over 25 innings, while his lone home run allowed is fantastic, even if it is unsustainable. His upper-90s fastball pairs greatly with his changeup, cutter and slider, giving him a good foundation for success.
Blue Jays’ Lineup
The lineups should be coming in the next hour or so, so I’ll just try to post them at that point.
Royals’ Lineup
Yesterday’s Heroes
Connor Wong went 4-4 with a pair of home runs, a pair of singles and a bean ball while driving in 3 runs, enough to earn him the Monster Bat award. His big night was a key component of the Red Sox 8-0 win over the Guardians.
Reynaldo López threw 7 great innings, allowing 1 run on 3 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6 to earn the Pitcher of the Day honours. He didn’t get the win as his bullpen blew the lead in the 9th inning, but he does get the more important WPA King trophy for all his work in the close game, leading the pack with a .332 WPA for the day. And in the end his Braves pulled out the win anyway, beating the Marlins 4-3 in 10 innings.
Find the Link
Find the link between Cole Ragans and Corey Knebel.