Forr some reason I'm watching the Cheerleading World Championships on ESPN2 while I'm writing this and a team from Thailand was just performing using American pop music. How does that make sense?
It's Chris Narveson VS Joe Blanton. But only if you follow the jump.
The Narv-Dog (3-0, 5.06) has yet to lose a game this year, so awesome. We're assured to not lose until the bullpen gets in the game. Narveson has been pitching better this year than his ERA would indicate, as the man has a good 4.29 FIP. Batters against him have a .332 BABIP so far, so that should probably drop sometime soon. In addition, this year Narveson is walking one more and striking out one less batters per nine innnings. He hasn't faced any current Phillies ten or more times.
Joe Blanton (0-2, 4.97) also has been pitching better than his ERA would indicate, with a 3.96 FIP. He doesn't strike out a lot of people, he doesn't walk a lot of people, and he doesn't give up very many homeruns. His BABIP is also a little high, at .328. His gorundball percentage is up about 7% from previous years which coincides with a 7% drop in line drives given up. The only two brewers that have 10+ PA against Blanton are Corey Hart and Gregg Zaun. Here's how they've done:
Hart (10 PA): .556/.600/.778
Zaun (12 PA): .182/.250/.273
The lineups today, courtesy of Tom H:
Brewers
2B Rickie Weeks
SS Craig Counsell
LF Ryan Braun
1B Prince Fielder
3B Casey McGehee
CF Jim Edmonds
C Gregg Zaun
RF Corey Hart
LHP Chris Narveson
Phillies
CF Shane Victorino
3B Placido Polanco
2B Chase Utley
1B Ryan Howard
RF Jayson Werth
LF Raul Ibanez
SS Wilson Valdez
C Paul Hoover
RP Joe Blanton
And your bullpen report:
Trevor Hoffman pitched 1 inning (32 pitches) Wednesday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched 1 inning (22 pitches) Wednesday.
Jeff Suppan pitched 1.1 innings (42 pitches) Tuesday.
Mitch Stetter pitched .2 inning (19 pitches) yesterday.
Todd Coffey pitched .1 innings (1 pitches) yesteday.
Claudio Vargas pitched 1 inning (8 pitches) yesterday.Manny Parra pitched 2 innings (39 pitches) yesterday.
Have fun with this one. Hopefully, I'll be out golfing during the game.