Who would have ever have guessed that the Mets were the highest percentage on opening day? That should be their slogan, “Opening Day, the day the Mets are champion”, which slightly beats out “Opening day, it’s all down hill from here”.
Today’s pitching matchups
Well, I ripped Kyle Lohse yesterday and he went out and threw an absolute gem. So I’ll save the editorial comments today and just give you my favorite pitching matchups for the day.
Best matchup: Red Sox LHP Jon Lester (15-9, 3.47 in 2011) vs. Tigers RHP Justin Verlander (24-5, 2.40 in 2011), 1:10 p.m. ET
- Lester is about the only constant in a very volatile Red Sox pitching staff. They need him to be good. Verlander is the AL’s best pitcher right now and has a powerful lineup behind him.
Nationals RHP Stephen Strasburg (1-1, 1.50 in 2011) vs. Cubs RHP Ryan Dempster (10-14, 4.80 in 2011), 2:20 p.m.
- Strasburg’s starts are always a show. Add in that it’s Opening Day and the Nats are a trendy playoff pick and there’s plenty of excitement in D.C. Dempster has been a steady innings eater the last four years, but he had an ERA over nine in April last season.
Source: http://mlb.mlb.com/news/probable_pitchers/?tcid=nav_mlb_news
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It’s the season opener! … And we get Kyle Lohse??
Tonight is the season-opening game for Major League baseball, at least on American soil. We get the new-look Miami Marlins in their brand new ballpark against the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals. So we would expect a great pitching matchup, right? Wrong, sort of.
Yes, Josh Johnson will throw the first pitch of the game for Miami, making his third straight Opening Day start. He is a bit of a question mark after shoulder trouble limited him to nine starts last year, but he’s still a bona fide Opening Day ace.
On the other hand, St. Louis starts Kyle Lohse. Yeah, he went 14-8 with a 3.39 ERA last season, but is he really anything more than an average No. 3 starter? After all, he has a career record of 102-106 with an ERA of 4.64.
There will be much better matchups than this tomorrow. Count on it.
Pitching coach CRUSHES his pitching staff
This is the absolute greatest video I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, that’s because I know exactly how he feels.
Because we all know Bobby Hurley is the true crying Dookie
Thomas Hill wasn’t actually crying when CBS cameras caught him on the sidelines after Christian Laettner’s shocking (and stopwatch-defying) shot to beat Kentucky in 1992. Deadspin has the full story here.
Here’s what happens when a high school girls’ soccer game goes wrong
Apparently this high school girls’ soccer game in South Carolina went from seemingly innocent mid-season match to a teenaged version of Fight Club. Check it out.
Pittsburgh, PA by Kurt Miller
PNC Park: Home of the Pittsburgh Pirates
Joba’s ankle — not a pretty sight
Looks like the Yankees may have lost Joba Chamberlain for the season after he suffered an open dislocation of his ankle while playing with his son yesterday. Yes, an open dislocation is exactly what you think it is — similar to a compound fracture. Bone sticking through the skin, all that not-so-good stuff.
According to my buddy Chad Jennings at The Journal News, Chamberlain is still in the hospital this morning. Here’s Chad’s preliminary story — http://yankees.lhblogs.com/2012/03/23/chamberlain-hospitalized-with-ankle-injury/
