Pitching Matchups; Game of the Day 4/30/11

6:05pm
Toledo Mud Hens (Andrew Oliver 2-1, 4.76)
vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Kyle Weiland 2-1, 3.38)

Portland Sea Dogs (Stephen Fife 2-1, 4.40)
vs. Reading Phillies (J.C. Ramirez 3-0, 1.33)

6:35pm
Harrisburg Senators (Shairon Martis 0-0, 11.25)
vs. New Britain Rock Cats (Liam Hendriks 1-1, 4.61)

7:05pm
New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Joel Carreno 0-2, 7.02)
vs. Trenton Thunder (Manny Banuelos 0-0, 1.42)

Game of the Day – Mud Hens vs. PawSox - The brooms were out in full force last night as all four local teams got swept up in losses, making me think long and hard about today’s GotD. I thought that as punishment, I wouldn’t award anyone the GotD today…then I thought that I just do that sometimes because I’m lazy, so that would defeat the purpose! And who is really punished here? With all that being said, I decided to go with the best of the bunch, the 13-9, second place PawSox. Despite being shut out 3-0 by Lehigh Valley last night, the PawSox offense scored 39 runs and went 4-3 during their seven game road swing. They return to McCoy for a quick four game home set versus Toledo; the first meeting of these two teams in 2011. Toledo comes into the game with an 11-12 record, but they have rattled off five in a row and both their offense and pitching seems to be clicking. They have outscored their opponents 29-11 during this stretch. Andrew Oliver, who was clipped for 9 earned runs and 13 hits over his last two starts, gets the nod for the Mud Hens. The PawSox have Kyle Weiland on the hill and he has continually improved in each of his four starts this season. In his last two starts Weiland has allowed only 2 earned runs and five hits over 11 innings, while picking up victories in both games. The PawSox are 6-2 at home and will look for that advantage over these next four games. As a side, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that tonight is the night that Lars Anderson gets his first home run of the season.