Game #116 Preview: Blue Jays vs. Orioles

Another big game takes place at the Rogers Centre this evening as the Blue Jays and Orioles wrap up their series with a decisive third game. The series finale will either push the Blue Jays to within three games of the division leaders, or Baltimore will stretch the gap to four games. The pitching matchup is pretty boring to be honest, with lefty J.A. Happ going up against Mexican Miguel Gonzalez. Unlike the starter Wei-Yin Chen from yesterday, Gonzalez has faced the Blue Jays a fair bit (nine times) in his three-year career thus far with Baltimore and has a 3.02 ERA against them.

As mentioned in the preview in April, Gonzalez has four solid pitches in his fastball, slider, curveball, and splitter. Against lefties he's become very reliant on a fastball and splitter combination to great effect, with a 35% whiff/swing rate with his split against opposite-handed hitters. Since there's not much more to say about the rather unexciting Gonzalez, let's just take a look at where the righty has given up his home runs this season. Very few home runs have been hit anywhere other than right down the foul lines and upon further inspection almost all of these homers have been pulled (righties hitting to left field and lefties hitting to right field):

Source: FanGraphs

Hopeful Lineup

1. Jose Reyes SS
2. Melky Cabrera LF
3. Jose Bautista DH
4. Dioner Navarro C
5. Colby Rasmus CF
6. Juan Francisco 1B
7. Munenori Kawasaki 3B
8. Ryan Goins 2B
9. Anthony Gose RF

Bullpen Usage