Pitching Matchups; Game of the Day 5/14/11

5:35pm
Portland Sea Dogs (Stolmy Pimentel 0-4, 5.53) GAME 1
vs. New Britain Rock Cats (Deolis Guerra 2-4, 11.57)

Portland Sea Dogs (Miguel Gonzalez NR) GAME 2
vs. New Britain Rock Cats (Brett Jacobson 1-0, 3.32)

6:05pm
Scranton-Wilkes Barre Yankees (D.J. Mitchell 1-2, 2.45)
vs. Pawtucket Red Sox (Kris Johnson 2-1, 10.61)

New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Chad Beck 3-0, 1.91)
vs. Reading Phillies (Josh Zeid 1-2, 4.38)

Game of the Day – Sea Dogs vs. Rock Cats (GAME 1) – It’s a pitching matchup of major disappointments. Portland’s Stolmy Pimentel made some strides last season pitching in Single-A Salem and representing the Boston Red Sox at the Futures Game. Ranked as the sixth best prospect in the Sox system by Baseball America heading into the year, Stolmy was expected to be one of the aces in Portland this season, but after six starts the 21-year old righty has yet to pick up a win in Double-A. He is coming off his best start of the season where he tossed 6 scoreless innings against the first place Fisher Cats, so the Dogs are hoping he can carry that momentum into today’s game so that he can finally get in the win column. Deolis Guerra has been so bad this season that in six starts he has not pitched enough innings to qualify for the worst ERA in the league, which at 11.57 would be a whole 2+ runs higher than the next pitcher (Portland’s Brock Huntzinger, 9.00 ERA). Same thing goes for his monstrous 2.10 WHIP! He has continued to get hammered, allowing 30 earned runs, 41 hits and 8 home runs in 23 1/3 innings, and you have to believe that the Twins organization may consider flat out dropping the last remaining piece of the Johan Santana trade if things continue in this direction. Deolis’ last start was against Portland one week ago today and it was UGLY! The Rock Cats righty only lasted 1 2/3 innings in that outing, getting lit up to the tune of 10 earned runs on 8 hits, 3 walks and 3 homers. So which way will today go? Will it be another of those surprise pitcher’s duels that no one expects? Or will thing play out predictably with another slugfest between these two foes?

Side note prediction (3-8) – Look for the PawSox to get back on track today with a win to snap their four game skid.

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