Pitching Matchups; Game of the Day 4/10/11

(last season’s Minor League stats in parenthesis)

1:00pm
Reading Phillies (Chris Kissock 7-3, 2.68)
vs. Portland Sea Dogs (Stephen Fife 8-6, 4.75)

1:05pm
Pawtucket Red Sox (Andrew Miller 2-9, 5.35)
vs. Buffalo Bisons (Boof Bonser 2-3, 5.59)

1:35pm
Trenton Thunder (Dellin Betances 8-1, 2.11)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Willie Collazo 0-0, 4.70)

2:05pm
New Britain Rock Cats (Steve Hirschfeld 0-0, 5.63)
vs. Richmond Flying Squirrels (Clayton Tanner 9-9. 3.68)

Game of the Day – Thunder vs. Fisher Cats – The final game of a four-game set pitting the two teams who battled in the Eastern Conference playoffs of the Eastern League last season, comes to a conclusion today with one hell of a pitching matchup, with most eyes firmly planted on the opposition. Both pitchers seem to be on opposite ends of the spectrum, with the same intentions, pitch strong and get to the bigs ASAP. For the Fisher Cats Willie Collazo it has been a bit of a roller coaster career. This is his 11th season in professional baseball, and he has only seen “The Show” for a cup of coffee back in 2007 with the Mets. He has spent the last four seasons in AAA ball, but injuries hampered his 2010 season where he only appeared in 4 games, so the Blue Jays wanted to work him back with a bit more caution. His opponent today is the imposing Dellin Betances, who stands 6’8” and fires high-90s gas. The youngster was named the best pitching prospect (#3 overall) in the New York Yankees system by Baseball America. Between Single-A Tampa and Trenton last season, Betances only lost 1 game and struck out 108 batters in only 85.1 innings. He also shut down the Fisher Cats in the aforementioned playoff series last season, going 5.1 innings, allowing only 2 hits, 0 earned runs and whiffing 8. With a win against Betances, the Fisher Cats can send an early message that this year’s squad will be as strong as last, while exacting a little revenge by taking the series 3-1.