Berrios-Colon matchup presents significant age difference

By foxsports
Published

When Bartolo Colon made his first major-league start April 4, 1997, Minnesota Twins pitcher Jose Berrios was 2 years old.

On Friday, the 22-year-old Berrios will face the New York Mets and the 43-year-old Colon in the second-largest age gap between starting pitchers this season.

Largest Age Diff Between SP in Any MLB Game, 2016 (age in years-days)

Date   Matchup     Older Pitcher      Younger Pitcher         Diff
07/07  NYM v. Was  B. Colon (43-44)   L. Giolito (21-359)     21-51
09/16  NYM v. Min  B. Colon (43-115)  J. Berrios (22-112)     21-3    
04/26  NYM v. Cin  B. Colon (42-338)  B. Finnegan (23-12)     19-326  
09/05  NYM v. Cin  B. Colon (43-104)  R. Stephenson (23-194)  19-276  
09/10  NYM v. Atl  B. Colon (43-109)  J. Gant (24-35)         19-74   

Colon has a 3.27 ERA in 29 starts (170 2/3 innings) this season, the third-lowest mark of his 19-year career. He has a 3.97 ERA in 23-career starts against the Twins, with a majority of those starts coming from 1997-2003. Colon has yielded just one earned run in his three starts against Minnesota since 2005.

He will face a Twins team that has fared significantly better this season vs. National League pitchers than American League pitchers. Minnesota has hit .278 in interleague games this season, compared to .253 vs. American League opponents. That difference is the second biggest in the American League.

AL, Largest Diff in Batting Avg, vs. NL > vs. AL – 2016

Team                      vs. NL    vs. AL Diff
Seattle Mariners .282     .257      0.025
Minnesota Twins .278     .253      0.025
Detroit Tigers .284     .263      +.021            
Toronto Blue Jays .264     .246      0.018

Minnesota has four batters who are hitting better than .300 in interleague games this year, led by Kurt Suzuki at .381. The Twins are 8-9 in those games and have won two straight.

Twins individuals in interleague play, 2016

Player G AVG OBP SLG
Kurt Suzuki 12 .381 .395 .667
Jorge Polanco 6 .353 .368 .412
Robbie Grossman 9 .314 .415 .486
Brian Dozier 17 .307 .358 .547
Joe Mauer 16 .290 .389 .452
Eddie Rosario 10 .282 .317 .487
Miguel Sano 9 .270 .372 .514
Eduardo Escobar 11 .263 .317 .316
Max Kepler 13 .235 .341 .324
Byron Buxton 12 .171 .255 .268

The Twins are 7-8 all-time vs. the New York Mets, though were swept in their most recent series in 2013. This weekend wouldn't be a bad time to reverse that trend.

Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference and STATS, LLC