Baseball Daily

• Chad Fox will get a shot at closing games in Dusty Baker’s new ‘closer by situation’ bullpen.


• The White Sox may call up Brandon McCarthy to start this Friday night.


• It appears to be a cool, windy day around most of the the Northeast.
  Boston, Washington, and New York are all hosting games today.


• Chen vs Wells again today.
  Their game on 4.20.05 was 1-0 BSox after five before they broke it open.
  That was in Baltimore. Today the game is at Fenway.
  Boston’s still only hitting .217 against LHPs while Baltimore is at .294.
  Boston is 6-2 at home.
  Baltimore is 7-2 on road.
  It’s about 50 degrees and windy (24 mph SW) in Boston today.


• Jon Garland at Network Colosseum:
  0-3, 14.2, 6.75, 1.91, .328
  Last season, he was a little better there:
  0-1, 7.0, 6H, 4R, 3ER, 5BB, 2K
  BvsP:
  Byrnes- 3/7
  Chavez- 5/11, 2HR
  Durazo- 2/11
  Ellis- 2/10, 1HR
  Hatteberg- 5/13, 1HR
  Kielty- 2/14, 2HR
  Kotsay- 2/8


• Barry Zito career vs CHW:
  5-1, 46.1, 3.30, 1.10, .217
  And even as he struggled last year, he was still effective against Chicago:
  1-0, 13.2, 3.29, 0.95, .220
  BvsP:
  Crede- 2/11
  Dye- 2/3
  Everett- 5/21
  Konerko- 5/19, 1HR
  Pierzynski- 0/12
  Rowand- 3/13
  Uribe- 0/5


• CHW is batting .297 against LHPs.
  They’ve won 7 in a row, 4 of which came by 1 run.
  They’re 7-0 in series openers, while Oakland is just 2-5.
  They’ve lead in all 19 games this season.


• Roy Oswalt at PNC:
  6 starts, 2-2, 42.1, 2.76, 1.13, .250
  Oliver Perez talked to his catcher after another poor start last week. He’s eventually going to turn things around.


• Houston is 1-8 on the road, Pittsburgh is 1-6 at home.
  The Astros are batting .198 against LHPs.
  The Pirates are batting .232 overall.


• The Mets are hitting .316 against LHPs


• Ramirez and Heilman faced each other 04.09.05 and the Braves won at home, 6-3. Both starters didn’t make it past the 5th inning.


• Heilman BvsP:
  Estrada- 2/8
  Furcal- 2/11
  Giles- 4/7
  C Jones- 3/8, 2HR
  A Jones- 4/11, 1HR
  Jordan- 1/2, 1HR
  LaRoche- 4/7, 1HR


• Braves Beat reports that Atlanta is hitting .282/.363/.466 at home and just .214/.271.325 on the road.


• Paul Wilson career at Wrigley:
  0-3, 27.2, 7.48, 1.70, .289


• Mark Prior career vs CIN:
  1-2, 34.2, 1.82, 0.89, .190
  Prior beat the Reds 7-1 on 04.19.05.


• Wes Obermueller made 1 start at Busch in 2003 and he only lasted 2.1, giving up 7H, 7ER, and walked 3.
  Larry Walker is 2/2 with a HR and Jim Edmonds is 2/3 with a HR against him.


• Jeff Suppan BvsP:
  Branyan- 0/9
  Cirillo- 5/17
  Clark- 7/12, 2HR
  Helms- 3/10
  Jenkins- 4/22
  Lee- 9/38, 2HR
  Overbay- 4/10
  Spivey- 3/11


• STL is 9-1 over their last 10 with a 1.78 team ERA. Suppan threw 8.1 scoreless innings in Milwaukee on 04.15.05.


• Javier Vazquez at Dodger Stadium:
  1-3, 23.0, 4.70, 1.26, .239


• The DBacks are coming off a three game sweep of SD at home. They’re 9-3 at Bank One, and 2-5 on the road.
  The Dodgers are 5-0 at home.

• Paul Wilson last season at Wrigley:
  0-0, 10.2, 15H, 11R, 10ER, 5HR, 7BB, 8K


• Mark Prior has had a disturbing trend of pitching much better away from Wrigley, than in it.
  In 2004 his was 5.23, 1.50, .282 at home and 2.53, 1.16, .210 away.


• Juff Suppan also has that trend going.
  2004 at home:
  6-8, 4.75, 1.52, .299
  Away:
  10-1, 3.55, 1.20, .226