Marquee match-ups

Tried a few search terms and couldn't find a thread...People sometimes call attention to great pitching match-ups elsewhere; that's the purpose of this thread. For me, it should involve two starters who are either a) established stars pitching up to or close to their career norms, or b) a less than established star having a fantastic year (i.e., Lance Lynn this year). I don't know--I'm guessing most nights there's one, you don't often see two, and some nights there aren't any. Tonight: CC vs. David Price. I know CC's ERA is a little higher than normal right now, but his peripherals are good, and--thought-crime!--he's on target for 20 wins. Price continues to be one of the best starters in baseball.

kind of a draw, in regards to pitching lines...
Price: 5 IP, 8k, 4BB, 3H, 1 ER
Sabatia: 7 IP, 12K, 1BB, 7H, 3ER (+2 unearned)

Yeah, I noticed that Sabathia's line was actually pretty good, especially the K/BB. Higher game score?

If my calculations are right, Price = 61, Sabathia = 58. So: close, but no.

Tonight: Mets v. Nats. Dickey v. Wang.

Good "traded for each other" game going on with Parker v. Cahill

hector noesi v jason marquis

see what i did there

Price-Dickey tonight is p good

price has fallen apart since the 4th inning

Second-guessing, but, based on this season, I should have flagged Lynn-Peavy tonight; Lynn won 1-0, with a game score of 81.

Whoah--Dickey's GS was 96 tonight.

sale v kershaw

Missed Verlander-Lynn tonight. Verlander's got an early lead. (Two weeks ago, Dickey was a punchline on the Marquee match-ups thread.)

1) David Price - Cole Hamels
2) overweight plodder - aging knuckleballer

I'll take door #2, Monty.

assuming I get in from Iowa on time, J0rdan and I should be seeing Sale vs Oswalt on the South Side Tuesday night.

Saw Volquez vs. Latos tonight - top notch.

will put on Yu v Sale now

well 4-3 in the 2nd, so much for that

Hamels v Sheets is close, but Cole's thrown more balls than strikes at this point.

trying to root for Philths this weekend, not easy

:O

Kershaw-Vogelsong should be good. I missed the obvious limitation of this thread when I opened it up: it's the same 12-15 names shuffled around.

Halladay-Hudson could go anywhere.

u forgot that the Philthies are in total punkass mode.

Which of the three words in "could go anywhere" didn't you read?

Hard to get a more statistically even match-up in the most basic columns than Bumgarner vs. Kershaw:

ERA -- 2.97 (B) / 2.90 (K)
IP -- 164 (B) / 171 (K)
H/9 -- 7.4 (B) / 6.9 (K)
K/BB -- 4.7 (B) / 3.9 (K)
W/L% -- .650 (B) / .647 (K)

And they have identical WHIPs of 1.014.

who wouldve thunk - david price vs.............luke hochevar

... and the mighty Royals come out on top!

Cueto/Miley = Cy Young/ROY?

It was a good matchup. Johnny Cueto pretty much did what he has done all year. Cueto is so much more efficient than he was in past years and seems to have another gear he can get into later in the game. He was filthy in his last inning which was the 7th.

Wade Miley pitched a pretty good game. He works really fast and throws strikes. I don't know if it is his motion, but there is something about his motion that seems to confuse hitters on where the pitch is going to be located. He got quite few swings and misses for a guy that tops out around 91-92. Really just gave up some singles and lost one run on an error by the D-back shortstop. Chris Welsh was impressed stating he reminded him quite a bit of former Red left-hander Tom Browning.

Verlander-Sale, a game separating their teams at the top; best match-up since Dickey-Sabathia a couple of months ago.

If you were watching the ESPN broadcast, you caught an amazing statistic: other teams are hitting .131 against Verlander after he passes 100 pitches. (Not that small a sample, either, seeing as he's exceeded 100 every start this year.)

Hell of a dugout tantrum from Sale. He looked psychopathic after he gave up that HR to Delmon Young.

Verlander-Sale again

Rained out

Verlander and Sale ended up crushing the Twins and Indians (no runs allowed by either) instead of facing each other ... too bad.

Verlander/Anderson (on ESPN tonight) qualifies, right?

The best starter in the NL is going tonight, if anyone's interested. vs. Josh Johnson, but still.

I had to think for 30 seconds on who Anderson is.

"Mister Anderson"

Darvish-Greinke in a few

Scherzer-Harvey on TV today.

Aargh--looking forward to Scherzer/Harvey/Cabrera all day, I've got the Red Sox-Dodgers instead. I guess the reasoning is that the Jays are actively pursuing the Red Sox for a divisional crown.

scherzer!

through four:

harvey 8 H, 2 K
scherzer 1 H, 8 K

two pretty good rookies about to get going, Fernandez vs. Teheran

Good call--lead story on cnnsi.com this morning.

http://mlb.si.com/2013/08/31/mariners-taijuan-walker-wins-debut/?sct=mlb_t11_a2

Didn't realize it was Scherzer-Sale tonight.

Cliff Lee vs. Kris Medlen right now is a real beauty. Scoreless, 3 hits total, 11 Ks for Lee and Medlen just gave up his first hit in the 6th.

Lee's final line: 8 IP, 3 hits, 13 K, 0 BB, 1 run. May qualify as a tough loss.

Game time 2:07

almost feel bad for clifton, but then not

Game scores: Medlen 83, Lee 85

Hell of a game, nice heart-attack moment from Janish in the 9th.

less sympathy for a guy who can't decide whether to pitch in Philly or Arlington, two shitholes of the universe.

tbf he didn't go to miami/the bronx, but yeah

Kershaw and Fister tomorrow night could be great.

?

doug fister's having kind of a ho hum season right?

his peripherals suck, but 12-5, 2.55 always looks nice

in any case, he's hardly a match for kershaw, who will now probably give up nine straight hits

Posnanski had an interesting column on Fister a week or two ago--basically that the Tigers traded him because of a baseball-wide "deep suspicion and profound lack of confidence in pitchers who cannot throw 90 mph."

http://joeposnanski.com/joeblogs/the-need-the-need-for-speed/

I look at Buehrle's collapse here and I think, "There's good reason for that--eventually, your unimposing stuff catches up with you." But for the moment at least, Fister's year looks pretty good to me (I'll call the ERA and K/BB ratio a trade-off with a hit-per-inning). He's not Kershaw, no.

(Related note on how different things once were. I started watching Mark Fidrych's famous Monday night game in 1976--someone sent me a DVD of the complete game a few years ago, but it wouldn't play on my old DVD, so I let it sit there; it plays on the newer one. Holtzman was starting for the Yankees; it was his third start for them after coming over from the Orioles. They flashed his stats before the game: 5-5, 2.92, 114 IP, 116 H, 36 BB, 29 K. That's 2.2 K/9. Science-fiction.)

fister's strikeout and hr rates are of concern, but he's a solid 'back end' starter, and at the moment probably rather better than a combination of buck farmer and robbie ray

those are two names you made up, right?

http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/David+Dombrowski+Jim+Leyland+Announces+Retirement+NahGKx-AzFpl.jpg

Farmer and Ray are now out of the picture. Enter Kyle Lobstein.

"Lobstein's the fifth guy right now," Ausmus said. "We'll see how Lobber, how Kyle throws and we'll go from there."

the ol' lobber

btw i saw a guy at a leather street fair in June wearing a FISTER 58 shirt

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BwjU7PmCMAAyWji.jpg

lance lynn and johnny cueto are ~dealing~

lol good jinx *pats self on back*

Sale/Kazmir is a good battle right now.

no shame in gettin shut down by Sale, but damn, poor A's.

They used up all their runs in the second game of the series.

Johnny Cueto has had a heck of a year one of the best pitching seasons in Reds history but it is kind of lost in Kershaw's big shadow.

Per fWAR Cueto's 2012 was better.

that year he was also lost in Kershaw's fshadow.

Felix-Weaver tonight

Bumgarner-Greinke.

Price-Cueto atm

i noticed

prime pitching matchups 2015

Didn't realize it was Scherzer-Greinke today; 1-0 Dodgers going into the ninth (Scherzer got lifted after six).

@Lynn_Henning
Chris Archer, Verlander, perfect through 4: combined 12 strikeouts.

Sale vs Archer tonight

Kershaw-Cole tomorrow is about as marquee as it gets at the moment.

buffalo's randy wolf (7-1, 2.48) vs. charlotte's brad penny (5-5, 3.90) tonight

I can suggest an umpire.

i predict the pirates get three (3) hits at most off kershaw tonight

lmao 1 pitch

ok i was wrong, but bases-loaded-no-out-and-no-one-scores makes up for it

totally slothroprhymed that shit

sale/felix friday

KO, Sale. Felix's ERA+ has dropped below 100.

Greinke/Kazmir today--I guess Kazmir counts based on this year.

totally slothroprhymed that shit
--mookieproof

lol how'd I miss that

also, kazmir/greinke def counts

also a couple of "an ace vs...some dude" matchups today - gray/ramirez, cole/leake

Greinke/Bumgarner: two of the best pinch-hitters in the league.

strasburg v degrom is no slouch tonight

ja happ v keyvius sampson tho

jose fernandez v scherz on fri

Kluber-Ventura tnite

cueto vs. verlander, tanaka vs. matz in addition to scherzerman vs. jose tonight

your "an ace vs. some dude" matchups: greinke vs. locke, madbum vs. de la rosa

aaaaand "a potential ace vs. LOL" matchups: stroman vs. porcello

Zito v Hudson on Saturday

MadBum-Kershaw tonight

Almost marquee; sort of marquee; could've been marquee...I'm down at the game tomorrow night, and will miss Kershaw-Stroman by a day; getting Stroman-Maeda instead. I've had my fingers crossed since we bought the tickets a month ago.

Kershaw-Strasburg tomorrow night.

For the first time

‏

@washingnats
Stephen Strasburg has been scratched from tonight's start vs.the Dodgers with an upper back strain. Yusmeiro Petit will start for the Nats.

smfh

Vin Scully needs to update his Broadway-star references from ...Rex Harrison.

vin's stumbled a couple more times than usual tonight

just called kershaw "koufax", though he can be forgiven for that one

didn't realize we had thor-lester today, tho that was pretty one-sided

seems like every ace has thrown up a stinker in the last week or so tho

Didn't realize Bumgarner and Tanaka were going at it right now.

degrom/jose fernandez tmorrow

Marquee match-ups 2012: Verlander/Felix. Still a good one, though.

always a race btwn me & clem to see who revives their marquee thread

Kershaw-Scherzer must rank up near the top of post-season match-ups historically.

This is a rout again rofl

let's call it Bumgarner vs Naked Bum of Death

Kershaw-Greinke for the first time ever. (That didn't seem right--thought they matched up at least once last year--but I checked and it is.)

wacha
tanaka

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/787354661858713600/BsTZIY8d_reasonably_small.jpg

wachatanaka
takawanacha

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d8/Frank_Zappa_-_Waka-Jawaka.jpg

ah missed the hypen in the title

Verlander-Kluber today.

So much for that.

You got an old man match up tonight in Chicago with 40 year old Bronson Arroyo going for the Reds against 38 year old John Lackey against the Cubs. I'm sure Arroyo will be doing high kicks and Lackey will be complaining about strikes. Reds won the first match up in Cincy back in April between these two.

Couldn't find it, but that might have been the first time they faced off.

kershaw/lynn tonight has been great

matt carpenter's year has been weirdly good

keuchel v darvish

scherzer v arrieta, first matchup of previous two cy young winners since 2008

sure looks like Arrieta's days as an ace are numbered

Scherzer-Carlos Martinez.

lots of good pitchers going today

including the are-they-still-good triumvirate of arrieta, verlander, and quintana

arrieta was good today

yeah he looked solid, effective but not dominant

verlander somewhat less so

scherzer has 5 strikeouts through 6, and this cardinals lineup is due for a complete embarrassing implosion so i'd expect several more

Sale-Sabathia. More like a marquees-passing-in-the-night match-up. And they have the same initials. At least I think they do--I'm not sure.

I was looking at the Red Sox schedule to gauge if I'm going to see Sale, and it looks good; he's scheduled to go on Tuesday, Aug. 29, and I'm down there on the 28/29/30.

Also noticed how close a Sale/Kluber match-up this Thursday is; it would require a Cleveland rainout or, as a gift to the world, holding back Kluber an extra day.

Greinke-Bumgarner...who still looks marquee to me, abbreviated season and terrible team aside.

Severino-Price? Price is having a pretty good year--probably not marquee-level anymore, though.

Kluber/Seve--never mind.

against all odds, scherzer/hamels is a good battle so far

Kershaw-Bumgarner tonight (almost nostalgic)

Need David Letterman: Noah, Nola; Nola, Noah.

Scherzer-Nola tonight

scherzer with 83 pitches through four innings -- 24 of them fouled off

lol Neshek

lester and nola dueling rn

deGrom-Sale scheduled for Sunday at Fenway. (tho i guess Sale will go 2 innings)

3-4 innings, Sox say

Besides the Sale-deGrom partial match-up, there's Verlander/Greinke.

Kershaw-Freeland.

Scherzer-deGrom; definite Cy Young implications.

Freeland? I should stick with actual marquee match-ups.

Well played, Hyun-jin Ryu.

Scherzer-Verlander! I rarely root against either of them, but I want the Astros to win 1-0 tonight. (The game is free on mlb.com.)

I want anyone but the Astros to win.

I have to admit, I have been very impressed with Altuve lately.

Realistically, I think any Jays fan assumes Texas will be easier to stay ahead of.

How's this for complicated wording?

Justin Verlander & Max Scherzer will be the 1st former Cy Young winners to be teammates earlier in a season and THEN face each other later in that season, with both pitching for different teams than where they were teammates

h/t @EliasSports pic.twitter.com/M86VZcw9tm

— Sarah Langs (@SlangsOnSports) September 6, 2023

I'm not sure the last bit is even necessary--I would think "1st former Cy Young winners to be teammates earlier in a season and THEN face each other later in that season" would be enough.

So much for that--Scherzer's getting hammered.

from reddit:

This was the 19th straight Rangers game without a starting pitcher W. The last time their starter recorded a win was August 15.

Cole vs Burnes yesterday did not disappoint.

Verlander-Castillo, and two nose-diving teams trying to hang on.

shota imanaga (0.84 era, 0.75 whip) vs kutter crawford (0.66 era, 0.99 whip) should be good, if it doesn't get rained out

José Berríos and Corbin Burnes underway (Berrios coming off his worst start this year).

https://i.postimg.cc/gj9BCTzM/sale.jpg

2024 Cy Young AL candidate Skubal vs. 2024 Cy Young NL candidate Suarez right now in Philly.

May have jinxed Skubal by posting that 😬

Definitely not.

Tomorrow at Oracle Park

Hayden Wesneski (CHC) vs
Hayden Birdsong (SF)

Only one other player with first name Hayden (Penn) has appeared in a game in MLB history

— Christopher Kamka (@ckamka) June 26, 2024

So it begins...

...the dawn of the [#]a(y)den era.

I think the Giants were the first team to run out three Brandons in the same lineup.

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/04/three-guys-named-brandon-combine-on-double-play-for-san-francisco-giants

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZS9fmkY184

how many birdsongs have there been?

Excellent question, I’m so glad you asked. Besides Hayden, the Pirates have a pitcher, Elijah Birdsong, in high A this year. The Reds drafted Tim Birdsong, a RHP, in 1998 but he stalled after reaching High A (Mudville!) in 2001 and hasn’t pitched since. The Braves released a Cody Birdsong, who was a utility player in low A Augusta, in 2021.

Follow up question: could you field an entire mlb team with bird-based names (will allow Mark Fidrych)

Who wouldn't get the start, unfortunately: Robin Roberts.

Starling Marte could pitch...

Paxton gets an honorary spot in the line-up, as an adopted member

after a BR search, i see there are a lot of players with bird-based nicknames

Any ornery, HOF-caliber closers with a bird nickname?

Well, you might have to set your sights a little lower

During the 1966 season, when Regan was Walter Alston's favorite pitcher from the Dodger bullpen, teammate Sandy Koufax nicknamed Regan "the Vulture", due to his knack for earning wins in late-inning relief situations.

(A goose is a bird, right? I'm better at baseball than science.)

Yes lol

Glad you reminded me of Phil Regan, though, whose 14-1 season--which popped into my head without checking--used to fascinate me.

I took a breeze through Bref for this:

Jay Jackson (RP)
Jay Bruce (RF/1B)
Jay Buhner (RF)
Jay Bell (SS/2B)

Not going to include every single Jay.

Pete Crow-Armstrong (CF)
George Crowe (1B)

Brandon Duckworth (RHP)

Dennis Dove (RHP)

Jake Bird (RHP)
Doug Bird (RHP)
Birdie Tebbetts (C)
Red Bird (LHP)

Coot Veal (SS)

Phil Cockrell (TWP!)

Joel Finch (RHP)

George Rooks (LF)

Bill Eagle (OF)

Bob Swift (C)
Bill Swift (RHP)

Craig Swan (RHP)
Russ Swann (LHP)

Turkey Stearnes (CF)

Goose Goslin (LF)

Alan Storke (1B/3B/SS)

Mike Gosling (LHP)

Ed Hawk (LHP)

Fred Woodcock (LHP)

Sam Crane (SS/3B)

Eider Torres(SS/2B)

Michael Fulmer (RHP)

Snipe Hansen (LHP)

i just learned what a coot is!

They rule. They have dinosaur feet.

Stellar work, gyac. Robin Ventura gets the start at third.

Skenes vs. Fried coming in about 90 minutes, could be good.

Didn't see any of it, but certainly lived up to your advance billing. Skenes' ERA is just barely above 2.00.

When they put together next year's most-trade-value list, I imagine the two Baltimore guys will be at the top, but even being a pitcher, Skenes will surely follow closely.

pretty good battle between paul skenes and aaron civale right now. skenes is no-hitting the brewers and has 9 Ks through 4 innings, but some long at-bats mean he probably won't be in the game more than 6 innings even with the no-hitter. civale has been less dominant but more efficient and has 6 Ks and a shutout

Yeah, 86 pitches through five--amazing, nonetheless.

Into the 7th and they're leaving him in--surprised, especially with the Pirates up 1-0 now.

i don't know, he's been really efficient the last few innings, maybe they'll let him go

Wow, that was fast: 7 innings, no hits, 99 pitches.

They should really put someone else out for the 8th; if Skenes has a long inning, but still hasn't given up any hits, it becomes that much harder not to send him out for the 9th.

pepiot vs. skubal is a pretty good one going on right now

I'll be at Bello/Bowden Francis tonight...that's like 70% marquee at least.

gil vs skenes right now

ok never mind they’re taking skenes out early

Imagine buying a ticket to see Randy Johnson vs Greg Maddux, getting to the ballpark, and discovering that they've both been scratched. In place of them, the Dodgers and DBacks started a couple of nobodies. I won't spoil it, just watch the clip:

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DCSHgKCymsR/?igsh=MWFzbjNieWw3Nmx2MQ==

Yama vs. Skenes rn in Chavez Ravine

Not surprisingly, Skenes' (very good) ERA is 0.7 runs higher than his (excellent) FIP after last night, 2.39 vs. 1.70. He's giving up 6.2 H/9, has a K/BB ratio of 9.75, and has given up one HR in 38 innings.

I know the Dodgers are swooning hard but man Skenes made quick work of them and their ~$5T payroll.

Was also watching the Nats/Mets game last night and wondering what the Padres would be like if they hadn't traded Abrams, Wood, and Gore away for 1.3 seasons of Juan Soto.

good battle between tarik squbal and … ben brown??

Play-by-play from the god RICH WALTZ

I see the Tigers have the Pirates coming up in a couple of weeks. These two teams have to try to give us the marquee match-up everybody wants.

Maybe a chance at Skubal-Skenes? If the Tigers hold Skubal back till Wednesday (5 days rest), it would line up. But I don't know if both teams stick to a straight 4-days-rest rule, in which case they're a day out of sync.

Skubal Wednesday, Skenes on Thursday. Damn.

Which makes no sense to me. Skenes pitched five innings on the 13th, his usual 95 pitches--does he need five days rest?

Manfred, nows your time to shine

could have had skubal vs skenes today in the doubleheader, but one team or the other or both decided that skubal would start G1 and skenes G2

you can guess which one got a win

I know I shouldn't care, but makes me mad! Such a great opportunity to get people excited about the game. But baseball's idea of marketing itself seems to begin and end with hideous City Connect jerseys.

A few quotes about the missed opportunity:

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/mlb/tigers/2025/06/19/tarik-skubal-paul-skenes-detroit-tigers-pittsburgh-pirates/84275172007/

And this great sentence, which I didn't write: "That said, it would have been a marquee matchup."

free match-up tomorrow: Skenes vs Les Misiorowski

skenes vs. joe ryan sort of counts, except it just took the latter 34 pitches to get through the first

Skenes and Skubal starting the ASG. That's why they couldn't let that happen last month--had to make sure they saved that for the ASG.

Yamamoto-Ray should qualify imo? I don’t know that I’ve ever seen Yamamoto pitch live before (west coast team problems)

Most definitely marquee looking at their stats--didn't realize Robbie Ray was having such a good season.

Was at the game, Ray was cruising for the first 3 innings (22-23 pitches?) and then all the sudden in innings 4 & 5 he couldn't find the strikezone... you name it: wide, high, passed ball. 2 of the 3 SF all-stars made an appearance which was nice. LA won which was... not nice.

Counterpoint:

Gausman-Rodon, maybe. Gausman has been consistently mediocre as of late--Game Scores between 41-54 in seven of his last eight starts.

both guys that had an elite season in SF and then went straight to the AL East.

I'm a day late here, but SI's cover 50 years ago:

https://i.postimg.cc/DwNKhg7W/seaver.jpg

I'm not sure if they were ever matched up head-to-head; Seaver faced Cuellar twice in the '69 WS, and I think Palmer retired before Seaver moved over to the A.L. Those motions...would have been a fine marquee match-up.

Hah, amazing...They overlapped for one season, 1984; Palmer's last year, Seaver with the White Sox. Palmer barely pitched in '84--three starts, 17.2 IP for the season--but one of those starts was against Chicago, and, sure enough--wouldn't doubt that the two teams lined up their rotations so this would happen--Seaver was the opposing starter:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA198404230.shtml

Attendance: 16,939.

i feel like even back then that was very bad

That'd work out to somewhere between 1.3 and 1.4 million for the season, which probably would have been pretty good for the White Sox then (or most teams outside of NY/LA/Boston/Cubs). But considering the match-up, not much. I remember that part of the story that went with that cover was the rough seasons both Seaver and Palmer had in '74; both went on to win the Cy in '75. Palmer pitched 10 shutouts!

Okay--back to Skenes and Skubal and the marquee matchups of today.

Kershaw-Scherzer Friday night.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6531078/2025/08/06/clayton-kershaw-max-scherzer-rookie-meeting-diamondbacks-dodgers/?campaign=14496169&source=athletic_targeted_email&userId=3098904

(Probably paywalled, sorry.)

If you can't read it, here's the punchline of their first match-up as rookies in 2008: "Imagine going to the ballpark to see a game between Greg Maddux and Randy Johnson, but get disappointed they get scratched for a young Max Scherzer and a young Clayton Kershaw." That's who was bumped for them.

wheeler/skubal was a good one from a couple of days ago

Deinitely--in a world without Paul Skenes, probably the two Cy Young winners (although Sanchez leads the NL in bWAR).

As excited as I am about Scherzer/Kershaw, even if they're both sharp, they're basically five-inning pitchers now. It'd be a miracle if both--maybe even either--lasted into the 7th.

I'm hyping this enough to guarantee that they'll both be knocked out in the second inning:

https://www.mlb.com/news/clayton-kershaw-and-max-scherzer-historic-pitching-matchup

They've each gone 6+ in 3 of their 5 most recent starts! I am romantic enough to believe, seeing the other on the bump is enough to timewarp each individual to their prime selves for one final start

well, it wasn't a miracle but it wasn't 5 innings either. Max was pretty wild and did well to survive a turbulent 1st, did well to limit it to a mookie homerun (fingers crossed he's finally back to form). Kersh threw a typical 2025 start: mostly soft contact, not many strikeouts, lots of nasty breaking stuff outside the zone getting wiffs for a 2 strike weak contact grounder. Got BABIP'd for his 1 run but fair enough when you're working with an arsenal of soft stuff.

Considering where both Scherzer and Kershaw are in their careers, that game more than lived up to the hype.

They were both good. Between the HR and the line-drive DP, felt like the Jays got beat by Betts more than Kershaw--might have been 3-0 if Betts doesn't make that play. Of course, Schneider's catch bailed out Scherzer too.

I'll probably be miserable all day.

:(

Gray vs. Imanaga is scratching some itches.

Gausman (excellent in four of his last five starts) vs. Skenes (Paul Skenes).

Skubal-Brown (#1 and #3 in A.L. pitching bWAR).

Combined line for Skubal-Brown:

13 IP, 8 H, 5 BB, 16 K, 0 runs (Skubal was better); still 0-0, headed into the 10th.