Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and greetings from the press box at Miller Park!
Current Series
3 game series vs Mariners @ Miller Park
Seattle Mariners Friday, Jun 25, 2010, 7:10 PM CDT Ryan Rowland-Smith vs Dave Bush Partly cloudy. Winds blowing from right to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 80.
Complete Coverage > | ||
| Sat 06/26 | 3:10 PM CDT | |
| Sun 06/27 | 1:10 PM CDT | |
Check out Noah's series preview, then follow us after the jump for tonight's pitching matchup, lineup and conversation on tonight's game!
Dave Bush (4.67 ERA, 5.36 FIP) is making his 15th appearance (14th start) of the season tonight, and his first since beating the Angels ten days ago. That game was one of the best outings of Bush's season: He allowed one run on seven hits in 7.1 innings. Bush won't strike many guys out (2 or less in six of his 13 starts), and he's also typically not good for more than 100 pitches: He's only broken 100 in four games this season, and hasn't thrown more than 108.
Bush's FIP would suggest he's probably been a little lucky this season, and the league is only batting .299 on balls in play against him. Only one Mariner has faced him more than ten times: Jack Wilson is 3-for-21 with two strikeouts.
He'll face Ryan Rowland-Smith (5.98 ERA, 6.63 FIP), coming off the best start in what's been a disaster season. On Sunday against the Reds, Smith pitched six shutout innings, allowing three hits and five walks while striking out two. It was only the second time all year he's pitched into the seventh inning, and followed a start where he'd lasted just four innings against the Cardinals.
Rowland-Smith has an 88.3 mph fastball and throws it 56.7% of the time. He'll also mix in a changeup, curve and slider, in that order of preference. His change (+0.50 runs per 100) and slider (+0.19) are above average, while both his fastball and curve are well below. His curve is the worst, at -4.34 runs per 100. Carlos Gomez is the only Brewer who's faced him before, and he's 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
Gomez will get another shot at him tonight:
Rickie Weeks 2B
Corey Hart RF
Prince Fielder 1B
Ryan Braun LF
Casey McGehee 3B
Jonathan Lucroy C
Carlos Gomez CF
Alcides Escobar SS
Dave Bush P
And in the bullpen, everyone got a day of rest yesterday:
John Axford pitched 1 inning (22 pitches) Wednesday.
Kameron Loe pitched 0.1 inning (5 pitches) Wednesday.
Carlos Villanueva pitched 1 inning (16 pitches) Wednesday.
Zach Braddock pitched 1 inning (23 pitches) Wednesday.
Todd Coffey pitched 1 inning (11 pitches) on Tuesday.
Trevor Hoffman pitched 1 inning (12 pitches) on Sunday.
David Riske pitched 1 inning (11 pitches) on Friday.
Chris Capuano hasn't pitched since June 12.
Enjoy the game!