Pitching Matchups; Game of the Day 5/1/11

1:05pm
Toledo Mud Hens (Thad Weber 0-2, 4.18)
vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Andrew Miller 1-1, 1.40)

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Zach Stewart 1-1, 2.92)
vs. Trenton Thunder (Shaeffer Hall 2-1, 2.92)

Portland Sea Dogs (Michael Lee 1-1, 4.26)
vs. Reading Phillies (Austin Hyatt 2-1, 3.00)

1:35pm
Harrisburg Senators (Erik Davis 1-0, 1.15)
vs. New Britain Rock Cats (Santo Arias 1-0, 6.00)

Game of the Day – Senators vs. Rock Cats – After another tough night for the regional nines, I’ve decided to once again go with the hotter hand of the bunch. Since the Rock Cats were the only team to taste victory yesterday, they have earned the honor for today’s GotD. New Britain finished the month of April with a respectable 11-9 record, tied for second place with New Hampshire in the EL’s Eastern Division. That is a far cry from 2010’s April in which the Cats compiled an abismal 4-16 record in route to the organization’s worst season ever. Statistically speaking, their pitching and hitting has been middle-of-the-road so far, but there are plenty of reasons to believe that the numbers will get better, because the talent is certainly there. The Rock Cats are 4-1 against Harrisburg in 2011 and today will be the last chance they get to snatch another win over the Sens until the very end of June. Santo Arias gets his second start of the season after three straight appearances out of the bullpen. Arias’ only other start came back on April 12th against the Senators where he went 3 2/3 innings and allowed no runs, one hit and one walk. Sens starter Erik Davis has been pretty sharp in his four outings this season (three starts). He did face off against New Britain in his only relief appearance back on April 11th and he allowed a hit, a walk and struck out a batter in just 1/3 innings of work. Over his three starts he has tossed 15 1/3 innings, allowing only 2 earned runs and striking out fifteen. Let’s see if New Britain can start the month of May off on the right foot and continue their improvements over last season.

Side note prediction – For some reason I enjoy the punishment, so I’m going to continue making side predictions for our GotDs, as I started yesterday. For those scoring at home I am 0 for 1 after4 Lars Anderson refused to hit a home run again! I’m going to go with something a bit easier today and say that Yangervis Solarte will up his current hitting streak to nine games.