Chad Durbin limited the Nationals to 1 run over 6 IP at RFK on Tuesday. He gave up 5 hits without a walk and struck out 5 to improve to 6-3 on the year with a 4.37 ERA. Chad is keeping rotation seat warm for returning Tiger starters Kenny Rogers and/or Nate Robertson, and he's doing a fairly credible job as a 7th starter, with the expected hiccups of course. He has been decent at throwing GBs (1.20 this year better than 1.03 career) but his 3.4/9 BB rate and 1.3 HR rate are what is going to punch his ticket back to the bullpen. Chad might steal you a win or two in his final few starts because he is in front of a good team. You guys who stream pitchers may want to hand pick a couple of starts if you need them, but Chad is really too flammable (6 starts this year, of his first 14, in which he's at least been within a run of a 9.00 ERA) for every day use.
Ryan Garko snapped a 2- for -41 skid with 3 hits in 4 trips on Tuesday including his 9th HR of the year and 2 Rbi. That raises his average to .295 on the year. He is carrying a .475 SLG% and a respectable (if he didn't play first base) .825 OPS. What you see is what you get here. Ryan's indicators are fairly level with his baseline. He is carrying a fairly high .331 BHIP% and there's room for improvement in his 5.2% BB rate but otherwise his performance looks solid.
Dustin McGowan just didn't have it last night against the Dodgers allowing 6 runs in 1.2 IP on 8 hits, and 2 walks while striking out 2. Dustin drops to 3-3 on the year with a 5.68 ERA. He had decent velocity but he didn't have his sinker at all, and his fastball was lifeless. He has had a good run of late posting 5 QS in a row entering last night and the Rockies are next. It is probably too early to yank him just yet but if his next outing is anything like this one you'll have to remove him at that point to wait for word on a possible health issue. There was no mention of it last night, but it did look like the kind of outlying start that calls a pitcher's health into question.
Yep, this was easy to see ... The Red Sox send Curt Schilling back to Boston on Tuesday to have an MRI performed on his pitching shoulder. The results were negative for significant damage. They have not pulled him from his scheduled start in Sunday but anyone who watched Curt pitch against the Braves had to share Chipper Jones opinion that he just didn't look right. Schilling did not talk about health issues after the start but the evidence was compelling. I still think the Sox will try to talk him onto skipping start but Terry doesn't effectively stand up to Curt too often so I doubt he will win the point.
Bartolo Colon was roughed up for 7 runs in 6 IP on Tuesday against the Astros. He gave up 11 (count 'em) hits and 3 walks while managing just 3 Ks. The loss drops him to 6-3 on the year while inflating his ERA to 6.17. He is now 1-3 with a 9.79 ERA in his last 5 outings, giving up 36 hits in 26.2 IP along with 7 walks (1.61 WHIP) while striking out 19. Colon cannot overpower hitters any more, and he is in the midst of the conversion to pitching instead of throwing. He is backing himself into fastball counts and teams are sitting on it. All of his indicators remain decent except for a slightly low 68.3% strand rate. Pittsburgh is next and that is an enticing start, and he should rebound a bit before all is said and done, but I have to recommend you sit Bartolo until his vitals stabilize.
Scott Baker, who is 0-2, 16.39 in his last three starts may be pitching for his rotation spot tonight. Fortunately, for him Matt Garza is not pushing too terribly hard from below (3-6, 3.81 in AAA) and he has had some issues with authority of late. It won't take a lot for Scott to buy another turn or two to straighten things out but Baker hasn't been capable of much lately either.
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