Best pitching duels of the day: June 22

by Brandon Warne

There’s a very limited slate of action on this baseball Monday, as just 14 teams are in action. Still, we managed to find you a few different matchups or pitchers to keep an eye on. Check ’em out:

Clayton Kershaw (LAD) vs. Tsuyoshi Wada (CHC)

8:05 p.m. ET

Even though he lost last time out, facing Kershaw has been an unenviable task of late, as he’s set out to overcome a rough start with some pretty nasty stuff in recent outings. Kershaw has fanned double-digit hitters in three straight starts, and in five of his last seven. In those seven starts, he’s dropped his ERA nearly a full run—4.26 to 3.29—and has put together the following stat line: 2.40 ERA, .501 OPS against and 11-to-2 K/BB ratio in 48.2 innings (12.2 K/9). For all the handwringing that Kershaw has caused—and some of it is absolutely worthwhile—he’s striking out more batters this year (11.8 K/9) than last (10.8) and his xFIP is barely up from last year’s 2.08 mark (2.13). The best is yet to come with Kershaw, it seems.

Looking at Wada’s season numbers paints a pretty interesting picture; that is, one where he’s fanned a batter an inning through six starts with an improved but still not great groundball rate. But then there’s the stucco: Wada has made six starts and is still under 30 innings for the season. On three occasions he’s failed to finish five innings, and two others he’s failed to get through the sixth. What we’re most interested in is what he’s done lately, and his most recent start was a seven-inning gem against Cleveland, where he held the Tribe to just four hits with no earned runs, six strikeouts and a pair of walks as the Cubs won 17–0.

Wada’s bread and butter is his four-seam fastball, which he throws more than 60 percent of the time. He’ll mix in a change and slider, and an infrequently used curve. Oddly, none of his pitches profile as plus pitches whiff-wise—none over 10 percent in swinging strike rate—though his changeup is pretty close. There’s also an interesting divide on his pitch mix, as his fastball induces grounders 31.9 percent of the time; his other four pitches are 66 percent or higher. There might be something more here, but Wada is 34 years old, so there’s a pretty good chance we already know who he is.

Warm-Up Tosses

Here’s a peek at today’s “aces in isolation:” Michael Pineda (opposed by Philadelphia’s Kevin Correia) and Felix Hernandez (Kansas City’s Joe Blanton). Pineda finally reached double digits with his walk total last time out as he walked two batters for the third straight start against the Miami Marlins. Pineda did a nice job to work his way back from a rough outing the start before, and held the Marlins in check with just one run on one hit—a Christian Yelich home run—to go with nine strikeouts and two walks. For the year, Pineda still has 87 strikeouts and 11 walks in 81.1 innings; that’s a perfect combination of more than a strikeout per inning with virtually no walks, and it melds well with his newfound groundball propensity (51.3 percent).

Hernandez outdueled Madison Bumgarner last time out, and got retribution for getting hammered in two of his previous three starts, which resulted in a combined 15 earned runs over just five innings. But the King was in charge against the Giants, scattering four hits with a pair of walks while striking out five in eight shutout innings. The Mariners won 2–0, and are now 11–3 when Felix starts. It’s still good to be King.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball Reference, Brooks Baseball, and Fangraphs.

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