Pitching Matchups; Game of the Day 5/19/11

10:35am
Binghamton Mets (Brad Holt 1-2, 3.12)
vs. New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Rey Gonzalez 4-1, 1.41)

12:00pm
Reading Phillies (B.J. Rosenberg 0-0, 1.83)
vs. Portland Sea Dogs (Alex Wilson 4-2, 3.57)

5:30pm
New Britain Rock Cats (Liam Hendriks 3-1, 3.66) GAME 1
vs. Harrisburg Senators (Oliver Perez NR)

New Britain Rock Cats (Bobby Lanigan 4-2, 2.61) GAME 2
vs. Harrisburg Senators (Brad Peacock 5-1, 2.13)

6:35pm
Pawtucket Red Sox (Brandon Duckworth 4-2, 3.27)
vs. Columbus Clippers (Mitch Talbot 0-1, 3.60)

Game of the Day – BMets vs. Fisher Cats - The main reason this is the GotD is because I'm at the game...how I dragged myself up at 7:00am and drove an hour plus is beyond me. Baseball people for the most part are not morning people, but hopefully the players are, because I do not want to fall asleep in the booth today. But enough of my whining, on with the matchup. The Cats bats exploded for 11 runs in a rain shortened 5-inning affair last night, pulling them back into a first place tie with the Rock Cats who were rained out last night. New Hampshire is 13-5 in the month of May, 7-4 in day games and 4-2 on Thursdays...so they have a reputation to uphold here today. Rey Gonzalez gets the start and he has been arguably one of the best pitchers in the Eastern League this season, boasting a minuscule 1.41 ERA over 44 2/3 innings of work. He has gone 6+ innings in each of his last six starts, allowing no more than 2 earned runs in any of those outings. He will be opposed by Brad Holt, one of the top pitching prospects in the New York Mets system. Despite a not-so-impressive start overall, Holt has pitched well in two starts against New Hampshire, going 10 innings, allowing only one earned run and striking out 10. He has been plagued by control issues as of late, allowing 15 base on balls in his last four starts. The BMets have gone 1-4 over their last five, scoring only 11 runs. The Cats are 3-2 over their last five and have scored a whopping 38 runs in that span.

Side note prediction (4-10) – Ohhhh so close to the DH sweep last night, but the PawSox coughed it up in the bottom of the 6th in game 2…oh well, live and learn! I like the Fisher Cats trend of scoring runs in bunches, so I'm predicting 5 or more runs from them today.

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