The Giants invade Toronto for what figures to be a low-scoring series.
The Blue Jays wrapped up the no-DH portion of their interleague games with a 3-6 record this week. That's pretty awful, but we're used to it by now. This franchise hasn't had a winning record in NL parks since 2000, when Frank Castillo defeated Dustin Hermanson's Expos to lift the Jays to a 5-4 interleague road record.
Halfway through interleague, the AL sits a mere six games over .500 against the NL. I really expected more.
Weird: According to Baseball Reference, the park factors for Toronto in 2010 are 96 for hitters and 95 for pitchers. Those numbers have been in decline since the turn of the millennium - in 2000 the multi-year park factors were 103 and 103. What's changed since then? The turf has evolved, and maybe other parks have become more favorable to hitters recently, but can that really explain all of it?
The Giants are in town this weekend. They're nine games over .500, a half-game behind the NL West leaders, Los Angeles and San Diego. The Jays dodge Tim Lincecum - too bad - but they still have to deal with Barry Zito, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez.
Brandon Morrow gets the ball for the Jays tonight. Morrow is on a roll that started immediately after his 1.2-inning meltdown at Fenway Park on May 10 increased his ERA to 6.69. After that start, player-coach Shaun Marcum suggested some changes to Morrow's delivery. Since then, Morrow's Game Scores have been 55, 26, 51, 66, 72 and 61, and his ERA has been 3.60. He's amassed a .567 WPA against six rather difficult assignments and allowed the grand total of three runs in his last three starts. Crucially, at the same time, his peripheral stats have taken a sharp turn for the better – from 28.6% K, 16.1% BB and 4 homers in his 161 batters faced, to 27.4% K, 8.5% BB, and 1 homer in the next 142 batters. He's almost cut the walks in half while still striking out as many batters, and if the newfound aggression is resulting in more hittable pitches, you can't tell from the homer totals. Those numbers will play. I had Morrow penciled in as the Jays' 2011 closer a month ago, but he's making a strong case for a starting gig these days.
Talk about a clash of styles. Zito and Morrow, Jays -130, first pitch 7:07.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20100618052953122