Tribe Weekend Preview

As the FCF staff prepares to celebrate the annual rite of Tribe Weekend, I felt it a worthwhile exercise to preview the pitching for this weekend:

Game 1: Max Scherzer, RHP 6-6, 4.61 ERA vs. Jake Westbrook, RHP 5-5, 4.75 ERA
If you don't think I like the idea of seeing our veteran Jake Westbrook taking the ball following the All-Star break then you don't know me. Looking at Max's numbers I like our chances. The only concern is that Jake might be overly rested, which baseball conventional wisdom tells you might not be the best thing for a sinkerball pitcher.

Game 2: Justin Verlander, RHP 11-5, 3.82 ERA vs. Fausto Carmona, RHP 8-7, 3.64 ERA
Game 1 of a Saturday day-night doubleheader pits each club's top starter against one another. If this truly is the pitching matchup on Saturday's day game and the high that day really does reach 88, then I'm glad this game will be viewed either from Andy's couch or a bar.

Game 3: Rick Porcello, RHP 4-7, 6.14 ERA vs. Mitch Talbot, RHP 8-8, 3.99 ERA
Talbot has dropped his last two and four of his last five after jumping out to what can only be described as a shockingly good start. I hope the break was what Mitch needed to rest and get things back on track. Porcello gets the call-up from Toledo despite less-than-stellar numbers.

Game 4: Andrew Oliver, LHP 0-3, 6.38 ERA vs. Justin Masterson, RHP 3-8, 5.31 ERA
Well, by this point in the weekend I'll be in a car back to Southern Ohio, but Oliver has only pitched a total of 6.1 innings over his last two starts. This is the kind of matchup Masterson needs.

Go Tribe!