Jeremy Hellickson takes on the Blue Jays for the fourth time today, while Mark Buehrle faces the Tampa Bay Rays for the fourth time as well. Hellickson last faced Toronto on June 24th going seven innings allowing just one hit in the form of J.P. Arencibia's single. Although Hellickson also walked four he dominated dominated the game, never giving the Blue Jays a glimmer of hope.
As Hellickson always does, he worked arm-side all game rarely venturing away to right-handed hitters:
After seeing Hellickson so many times it's hard to dig up anything new on him, but it's interesting to look at how the movement on 75% of his pitches is almost exactly the same with only the curveball having any real movement:
Left handers have traditionally hit Hellickson better, so Josh Thole might get the start although R.A. Dickey is pitching Sunday, which would make it back to back games for Thole. The lineup that I'd like to see features five left-handers and looks like this:
- Reyes SS
- Bautista RF
- Lind 1B
- Encarnacion DH
- Izturis 3B
- Rasmus CF
- Davis LF
- Lawrie 2B
- Thole C
A win would be nice, so would some new opposing pitchers.