Charlie Zink – Charlie Zink had been tearing up the minor leagues before being added to the Boston rotation. This year at triple-A, he had a 13 – 4 record thanks to a 2.89 ERA and 1.13 WHIP. He did not have an extremely high K rate though, only .617, which leads me to believe that Zink was lucky on balls in play, especially considering that he has never experienced anywhere near this level of success before. Sure enough, Zink struggled in his 1st major league start, lasting just 4.3 IP after giving up 11 hits and 8 runs. He was only able to strikeout 1 of the 25 batters he faced. The outing must have been extremely disappointing for Zink when you consider he looked like a shoe in for his first major league victory when Boston put up a 10 spot in the 1st inning.
Jensen Lewis – Jensen Lewis worked a perfect 9th inning last night, striking out 2 batters, to earn his 2nd save of the season, with both occurring over the past week. With an unsettled Cleveland bullpen, Lewis could emerge as the team’s main 9th inning option, but he is likely to share that duty with Rafael perez. Lewis has struggled this season, seeing his ERA and WHIP rise from 2.15 and 1.227 last season to 4.08 and 1.554 this season. One of the main reasons for that is a big and sudden drop off in K rate, which is definitely disturbing. Last season, Lewis struck out 10.43 batters per 9 innings, but now he is striking out only 6.27 batters per 9 innings. He is also not getting as lucky with his HR/FB%, which was just 2.7% last season and is now a more normal 6.3%, and as a result he is giving up HR at more than double the rate he did last season. Those numbers make me cautious about Lewis, but as long as he is getting some save opportunities he merits the up arrow.
Jon Garland – Jon Garland showed that he can be effective when throwing strikes and making effective use of his sinker. He picked up the victory last night pitching 7 innings in which he gave up 3 ER and 9 hits. He struck out 4 and walked just one. Garland threw 64 of his 100 pitches for strikes, and he induced 10 outs via GB versus 5 FB outs. On the season, Garland has a career best GB/FB ratio of 1.74.
Willy Aybar – With Evan Longoria winding up on the disabled list, Willy Aybar will see a good chunk of playing time at 3B for the Rays. Aybar has struggled in limited playing time this season, posting a .228 batting average over 184 at bats, but that is in large part due to an unlucky singles average of .172. If Aybar maintains his current plate discipline (.82 EYE), he should hit much better over the next few weeks with a little bit better luck.
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