The Blue Jays are going to try and get back on track this afternoon after last night's horror show in the ninth inning. A fantastic pitching matchup sees last year's Cy Young winner Max Scherzer going up against 2015 Cy Young winner Marcus Stroman. The freshly-turned 30-year-old has continued his great pitching into this campaign, although there's been a slight drop off from his dominating season in 2013. His peripherals are remarkably similar to last year, but he has a .316 BABIP this season which has caused to ERA to be a slightly higher 3.24 compared to last year's 2.90 mark.
The fourseam, changeup, slider, and curveball are the go-to pitches for the St. Louis native, with the fastballs still hanging in the mid-90's. It's pretty wild how Scherzer is a completely different pitcher depending on who is up at the plate. Lefties see fastballs, curveballs, and changeups almost exclusively, while same-handed hitters only see the fastball and slider. Max's slider is his best off-speed pitch, although it has a .422 BABIP this year which has likely made his numbers look a little worse than they should.
Unlike most pitchers, who have a changeup that mimics the movement of their sinker, Scherzer's actually drops much more dramatically than his fastball as seen below in graph and GIF form:
via cdn0.vox-cdn.com
Hopeful Lineup
- Jose Reyes SS
- Melky Cabrera LF
- Jose Bautista DH
- Dioner Navarro C
- Juan Francisco 1B
- Colby Rasmus CF
- Munenori Kawasaki 3B
- Ryan Goins 2B
- Anthony Gose RF
Bullpen Usage
Blue Jays
- Yesterday:Dustin McGowan (1.0 IP, 15 pitches), Brett Cecil (1.0 IP, 10 pitches), Casey Janssen (0.2 IP, 13 pitches), Aaron Loup (0.1 IP, 4 pitches)
- Two Days Ago: Casey Janssen (1.0 IP, 14 pitches)
- Yesterday: Blaine Hardy (1.2 IP, 18 pitches), Al Alburquerque (1.2 IP, 22 pitches), Joe Nathan (1.0 IP, 26 pitches)
- Two Days Ago: Phil Coke (1.0 IP, 17 pitches)
Find The Link
Find the link between Max Scherzer and the other pitcher who came to the Blue Jays in the J.A. Happ trade not named David Carpenter.