posted on Saturday, July 14, 2007 1:05 AM
by
Jim
Two lefties don't make a right
Mark Buehrle's curious struggles against left-handers
continued tonight. Baltimore's two lefties, Nick Markakis and Corey Patterson, went a combined 4-for-6 with a homer apiece. The rest of the Orioles' lineup only had two hits.
(More concerning is that Buehrle is the third straight Sox pitcher to fail to retire Patterson after getting ahead in the count 0-2. Jon Garland and Dewon Day couldn't do it Thursday night, either.)
Lefties on the whole this year are batting .323/.356/.535 this year off Buehrle, which is rather bizarre considering as poorly as he threw last year, they posted only a .238/.282/.413 line in 2006.
One theory is that he's gotten so good at using that cutter against right-handers that he's throwing it the same way against lefties, which doesn't have the same effect. Other than that, it's hard to say, but it's something I'll be paying closer attention to in future starts. I'm just glad we have future starts to look forward to.
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Minor league round-up:
- Charlotte 9, Columbus 4
- Gavin Floyd wasn't terrible in his return to Charlotte, but he wasn't efficient. He struck out six over 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on four hits and three walks. Problem was he threw 108 pitches.
- Carlos Vazquez picked him up with 2 1/3 innings of stellar relief, allowing only one hit and striking out four.
- Ryan Sweeney went 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI; Casey Rogowski had three hits, including a grand slam; Kenny Kelly went deep as well.
- Birmingham 5, Jacksonville 0
- Jack Egbert returned to dominance by striking out 13 over seven innings. He allowed two hits and didn't issue one walk.
- Victor Mercedes went 3-for-4 with a double.
- Winston-Salem 3, Myrtle Beach 1
- Clayton Richard threw seven strong innings, allowing one run on six hits.
- Micah Schnurstein hit his 18th homer, a solo shot. C.J. Lang went 1-for-1 with two walks and an RBI.
- Kannapolis 1, Greenville 0
- Faustino De Los Santos picked up where he left off, allowing only one hit and no walks over seven innings, striking out 10.
- Sergio Miranda went 2-for-3 with a walk, and Mike Grace had two hits as well.
(Note: I went to tonight's game, and I'll be at the next two, so posting may be irregular until Sunday night.)