Aug 16 2008
Friday Night Lights: Dominating Pitching Performances, Comeback Kids and Cy Youngs…
Francisco Liriano was 12-3 in his rookie year in 06′ after missing 07′ due to Tommy John Surgery.
On this busy Friday, there were Cy Young favorites taking the mound, Comeback Players and overall great pitching performances. Six pitchers who were on their game on this particular day: Francisco Liriano-Twins, Matt Garza- Rays, Matt Cain- Giants, Mike Pelfrey- Mets, Brandon Webb- D-Backs, and Cliff Lee- Indians.
Francisco Liriano’s comeback from Tommy John Surgery in 2008 after having a dazzling rookie campaign in 2006 and missing all of 2007 has to be a great story for a young star who had to go through a lot of hard work and went through some strenuous rehab to get back where he was. He is not the same dominating pitcher with the mid 90’s fastball, the off-the-chart 90 mph slider and the sinking change-up. He is now an effective pitcher who lost some velocity on his fastball and has learned how to pitch and gained that confidence back. On Friday against the Seattle Mariners, he dazzled for his contending Minnesota Twins. He pitched 7 solid innings and only gave up 2 hits, 2 unearned runs, and had 5 strikeouts in a 9-3 win. Since returning from Triple-A Rochester, Liriano has gone 3-0 with a 1.45 E.R.A in 18.2 IP spanning three starts. He might be one of the reasons why the Twins will uphold the Chicago White Sox for the AL Central Crown and a playoff berth. Kudos to Liriano for being one of the Comeback Kids of 08′.
Matt Garza, the former Minnesota Twins prospect, now with the first-place Tampa Bay Rays, put on a dominating performance against one of the most potent offensive teams in the major leagues: the Texas Rangers. He threw a complete game two-hit shutout in a 7-0 win, only giving up two singles respectively to AL All-Stars Ian Kinsler and Josh Hamilton. He looked like the ace of the Rays on this friday night as he had 9 strikeouts to add to his dominating performance. This game put them a half-game more ahead of the Boston Red Sox, whose game got canceled due to rain.
Matt Cain of the lowly and slumping San Francisco Giants put on another good performance against the Atlanta Braves potent lineup featuring Chipper Jones and Brian McCann. He has been consistent as of late. He threw seven solid innings of one-run ball scattering six hits and adding 5 strikeouts to his stat line in a rare 5-1 Giants win. Since July 11th, he has a 3-2 record and a 1.81 E.RA. in 49.2 IP spanning 7 starts. On the year, Cain is 8-9 with a 3.57 E.R.A. due to lack of run support and some hard-luck losses. However, Cain has been showing the potential ace pitcher that he could be as of late. Him and fellow ace Tim Lincecum form a great 1,2 punch for these rebuilding Giants. Their combined record is 20-12 with 335 strikeouts between them. Wow, strikeout machines!
Mike Pelfrey has to be a big surprise and godsend for the New York Mets. He has helped out their injury-depleted rotation nicely all season. He threw another great performance tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates in a 2-1 win. He pitched seven shut out innings and scattered seven hits, but only had one strikeout. This shows that he is an effective pitcher and knows how to pitch and get outs. On the season, he is 11-8 with a 3.91 E.R.A. Since June 5th, Pelfrey is 9-2 with a 3.23 E.R.A. This is after a terrible 2-6 start. He has actually been the ace of the staff featuring Johan Santana and John Maine.
Brandon Webb, who has to be the Cy Young favorite in this year’s NL Class, had another dominating performance against a hot Houston Astros team. He got his major-league leading 18th win and is having a career year. I still think he has some great run support when he pitches and a great bullpen. So that helps his case for the Cy Young Award. Tim Lincecum, (12-3, 2.68 E.R.A) another Cy Young candidate has had 4 or 5 wins blown for him in the late innings after leaving with a lead due to an ineffective bullpen so one should consider all facets of the game and not just wins and losses. But that is what good pitchers do is make the team around him better and things have to go your way, too. However, 18-4 is 18-4 and that is incredible. He is 18-4 with a 2.85 E.R.A on the year and it was his fifth straight winning decision. Kudos to Brandon Webb and hopefully he can continue to lead this D-Backs team to the NL West crown for the 2nd straight year and a playoff berth.
Cliff Lee of the Cleveland Indians has to the Comeback Player of the Year as he was roaming around the minors all of last year due to ineffectiveness. However, this All-Star (who started the All-Star game and had two good innings) has performed like an MVP and is the Cy Young Favorite in the American League. He is only one of the few bright spots of this lowly Cleveland Indians squad. On Friday, he was vintage Cliff Lee and put on another dazzling performance, this time against the major-league leading Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. He pitched a complete game and gave up only two runs in a 3-2 win and added six strikeouts in his gem. Lee, who is 17-2 with a major-league leading E.R.A of 2.43, has thrown 3 complete games and one shutout this season. He is battling NL foe and ace Brandon Webb for the major-league lead in wins.
