posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 3:07 AM
by
Jim
Danks gaining a rival; bullpen holds a lead
It's not quite
Mark Buehrle vs. Jarrod Washburn or Buehrle vs. C.C. Sabathia, but John Danks might have a rival on his hands.
John Danks'
excellent performance against Jake Westbrook in today's game was eerily similar to
a start against Cleveland last year. He went head-to-head with Jake Westbrook in a pitcher's duel, went six strong innings with his changeup as his primary weapon, and the final score was 2-1. The only real difference: The Sox won this one.
Here are the lines:
August
7, 2007
|
IP |
H |
ER |
BB |
K |
GS |
Danks
|
6 |
4 |
2 |
1 |
8 |
63 |
Westbrook
|
8 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
5 |
79 |
April
3, 2008
|
IP |
H |
ER |
BB |
K |
GS |
Danks
|
6.2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
66 |
Westbrook
|
7.1 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
60 |
The only thing Westbrook definitely have on Danks is endurance. It helps that Westbrook has nearly 10 times as many major-league innings under his belt.
The Cheat has
more on Danks' start, including
a chart.
************************
While Danks and Westbrook are 1-1 against each other, the same can be said for Octavio Dotel and Casey Blake. Blake handed Dotel a loss in
the opener with a three-run double, and Dotel took the win after retiring Blake -- the only batter he faced -- on a lazy pop fly to Nick Swisher.
Dotel threw all sliders to Blake in the five-pitch at-bat, and he explained the selection:
"[Blake]'s the type of guy that likes to swing, especially with men on
base. So I said, 'Last time he got my fastball, so this time he's going
to get sliders.' I just threw all sliders.'"
I don't think the pitch type is nearly as interesting as the pitch location.
Once again, A.J. Pierzynski set up low and outside on all of them, but Dotel missed on his first two pitches. The first ended up on the inside corner, and he hung his second one.
Blake turned away from the first and swung through the second, and was quickly down 0-2.
************************
No walks. That can't be stressed enough.
Dotel got ahead on his hitter. Scott Linebrink pitched an uneventful 1-2-3 inning, during which he struck out Grady Sizemore and induced a routine fly from fellow Sox killer Victor Martinez.
And then there was Bobby Jenks, who completely disarmed the first two batters he faced tonight. He broke Jhonny Peralta's bat on a low and outside slider, which Peralta had to dive for after Jenks got ahead with a fastball on the inside edge of the inside corner.
More impressive was his at-bat against Travis Hafner, because I don't know if you'll ever see Pronk look more human than he did against Jenks. His fastball had great left-to-right movement, and he shaved the inside corner and outside corner on his first two pitches.
From then on, Hafner was on the defensive. Jenks threw a high slider on a 1-2 count, but Hafner chopped it in the dirt, and Jenks threw a terrific change to put Hafner away two pitches later.