Tuesday treated us to one afternoon game, but it wasn’t very competitive. The Blue Jays beat up on Phillies rookie Zach Eflin, pounding him for eight runs and chasing him out of the game in the third inning. They went on to win 11-3.
As a bookend, the Marlins-Padres game starts at 10:10 PM EDT tonight, featuring starters Tom Koehler and Drew Pomeranz. Normally, a Marlins-Padres game wouldn’t score highly on the interest-o-meter, but Pomeranz has quietly had himself a season. The lefty enters Tuesday’s action with a meager 5-6 record but a sterling 2.44 ERA and an 83/32 K/BB ratio in 70 innings spanning 12 starts.
While it’s true that Pomeranz hasn’t exactly shown the best control -- he has the fifth-highest walk rate among qualified starters at 11.2 percent -- he has also been missing bats way more often than he had been previously in his career. His 28.9 percent K-rate is seventh best among qualified starters, trailing only Jose Fernandez, Clayton Kershaw, Stephen Strasburg, Max Scherzer, Noah Syndergaard, and Danny Salazar. Pomeranz has maxed out at 22 starts in a season, back in 2009, and had been used as a swing man in the three following seasons. Still, this is easily the best pitching performance of his career.
Perhaps the talent was just hidden all this time, as he spent the first three seasons of his major league career pitching at Coors Field, which has a tendency to send pitchers’ ERAs into the sky. Then he went to the Athletics, who moved him in and out of the rotation, letting him start 19 games and serve as a reliever in 54 games. Now pitching half his games at the pitcher-friendly Petco Park in an established role, the 27-year-old now has a chance to shine.
The rest of Tuesday’s action...
Chicago Cubs (John Lackey) @ Washington Nationals (Gio Gonzalez), 7:05 PM EDT
Baltimore Orioles (Chris Tillman) @ Boston Red Sox (David Price), 7:10 PM EDT
Cincinnati Reds (Brandon Finnegan) @ Atlanta Braves (Julio Teheran), 7:10 PM EDT
Pittsburgh Pirates (Jameson Taillon) @ New York Mets (Jacob deGrom), 7:10 PM EDT
Seattle Mariners (Taijuan Walker) @ Tampa Bay Rays (Jake Odorizzi), 7:10 PM EDT
Detroit Tigers (Jordan Zimmermann) @ Chicago White Sox (Miguel Gonzalez), 8:10 PM EDT
Cleveland Indians (Josh Tomlin) @ Kansas City Royals (Chris Young), 8:15 PM EDT
Houston Astros (Doug Fister) @ St. Louis Cardinals (Jaime Garcia), 8:15 PM EDT
New York Yankees (Nathan Eovaldi) @ Colorado Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa), 8:40 PM EDT
Los Angeles Dodgers (Kenta Maeda) @ Arizona Diamondbacks (Archie Bradley), 9:40 PM EDT
Minnesota Twins (Ervin Santana) @ Los Angeles Angels (Jhoulys Chacin), 10:05 PM EDT
Texas Rangers (Martin Perez) @ Oakland Athletics (Eric Surkamp), 10:05 PM EDT
Milwaukee Brewers (Matt Garza) @ San Francisco Giants (Madison Bumgarner), 10:15 PM EDT