Interleague play! Oh, the hours leading up to it make you feel like a six-year-old waiting for a birthday party. The ribbon just so, the box so teasing, the wait unbearable. Everybody remembers their first interleague game. I remember mine as if it were yesterday. It was between two teams. One of them won. I listened on the radio or watched it on TV in a room that had carpet, vinyl, or hardwood flooring. The sun set in the west, that memorable day.
MLB Weekend Preview: Reds, Indians Fight For Ohio Supremacy (And More!)
Fine, maybe I don’t remember my first interleague game. Maybe that’s because there’s nothing that interesting about interleague games. It’s sort of intriguing for the Yankees to play the Mets. Then after Josh Thole works an eight-pitch at-bat in the second inning against Freddy Garcia, a gust of wind picks up that magic interleague dust and carries it to parts unknown so someone else can feel the magic. Or maybe the magic interleague dust never existed in the first place, and you’re just in a dank apartment watching Josh Thole hit against Freddy Garcia, wondering about choices you’ve made in your life. Po-tay-to, po-tah-to.
There are still some fantastic series this weekend, gimmick or no gimmick. Here are three of the best:
Oh, there is no love lost between these two teams. It’s like the Civil War, when brother fought brother, and it was, uh, northwest against south. Nasty, nasty stuff.
This is the best series that no one will pay attention to. There will be more people milling around the outside of Wrigley, looking for Cubs/Red Sox tickets, than will be inside Sun Life Stadium. This is especially notable because the Cubs and Red Sox are in Boston this weekend. That shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Rays and Marlins are two good, well-built teams able to compete with teams that have an extra $80M in payroll.
The Marlins have been on a little bit of a skid, losing three of their last four series. It’s also about time to start the Javier Vazquez demotion watch, as he’s pitching like he has a contract incentive tied to the number of baserunners he allows -- 75 runners in 39-1/3 innings. He’ll go against David Price on Saturday, so because this is baseball, the Marlins will win that game 8-1.
The Rays have returned from orbit a little bit too, splitting a pair of two-game series after losing a three-game set against the Orioles. They had been ridiculously hot, though, winning 24 of 35 games after starting the season 1-8. Even though it’s early, and there be small-sample dragons at play, the Rays have been pretty miserable at home (11-13, with a 69/92 run differential) and dominant on the road (14-6).
Probable pitchers
Fri: Andy Sonnanstine vs. Anibal Sanchez
Sat: David Price vs. Javier Vazquez
Sun: James Shields vs. Josh Johnson
Another completely unforced regional rivalry! When the series are this good, though, maybe it’s time to stop making fun of them.
It seems like the Reds have 48 interchangeable pitchers -- Travis Bailey! Mike Wood! Sam Leake! Homer LeCure! -- but there are really only seven guys that they shuffle around, and Mike Leake has been dispatched to triple-A to thin the herd. Homer Bailey and Johnny Cueto have been superb, and Bronson Arroyo has been pleasantly mediocre, which is to say he’s pitched like Bronson Arroyo.
That leaves Edinson Volquez and Travis Wood as the pitchers who stand between the Reds and a uniformly good rotation. With Sam LeCure having a good season behind them, both Volquez and Wood should have a little urgency behind every start. You’d think Volquez’s job safe because of his track record, but he also walked four batters in a bullpen session on Wednesday.
More bad news for the Indians on the injury front, as Travis Hafner is hurt now, and the team was already going without Grady Sizemore. The Tribe has been using Shelley Duncan and Austin Kearns in their spots, which is kind of like substituting talcum powder for sugar when you’re making brownies. The team is still rolling, though. Just for the sake of an interesting story, here’s hoping they keep rolling through the summer.
Also, from the player-mugshot well, these two pitchers are matching up tonight:
According to Baseball Reference’s Play Index, this is the first-ever match-up between two pitchers with a beady-eye-to-face ratio over 8.22 .
Probable starters:
Fri: Travis Wood vs. Alex White
Sat: Homer Bailey vs. Josh Tomlin
Sun: Edinson Volquez vs. Carlos Carrasco
Without doing any research, this seems like it’s consistently the most even matchup of the regional rivalries. Of the 14 seasons since interleague play began, these teams have split the season series in eight of them. They’re also similarly built teams, too. Pitching, more pitching, broken-bat hit, and more pitching. Then they tape the bat up and use it again. Waste not, want not!
They’re also similar in that it drives me nuts that they can’t hit. Josh Willingham and David DeJesus should be better for the A’s; Buster Posey and Aubrey Huff should be better for the Giants. Kevin Kouzmanoff and Miguel Tejada should be ... uh ... statistically as likely to win their clubhouse NCAA bracket next spring as any other player on their teams. But both teams’ lineups should be a little closer to average on the wretched-to-average spectrum. I’m just sure of it, dang it.
There’s a chance that this will be the first series in the history of baseball to end without a run scoring. Prediction for the first game: Oakland -4, San Francisco -3. Tejada has already grounded out against Trevor Cahill, and they haven’t arrived at the park yet.
Fri: Trevor Cahill vs. Ryan Vogelsong
Sat: Brett Anderson vs. Tim Lincecum
Sun: Gio Gonzalez vs. Jonathan Sanchez
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