Weekend’s Best Pitching Matchups

Friday: Pirates RHP Nick Kingham vs. Brewers RHP Junior Guerra

Encore, encore! After an historic major league debut, which saw a perfect game into the 7thinning, Nick Kingham gets his second start of the season to expand on that outing. Kingham has only given up one hit and has struck out nine on the young season. He faces a struggling Brewers lineup that just lost power bat Thames for 6-8 weeks.

Junior Guerra who took a hard luck loss 3-0 against Jose Quintana and the Cubs last Saturday opposes Kingham. Guerra only allowed three hits and one run in the loss. Guerra is on fire to start the season as he’s only allowed one run in each of his four starts.

Saturday: Indians RHP Trevor Bauer vs. Yankees RHP Sonny Gray

Indians Trevor Bauer usually makes headlines with his pitching lines but this week it was what he said that got all the attention. Bauer accused the entire Astros pitching staff of cheating and using too much foreign substances on the ball to get better spin rates and thus more strikeouts. While the Astros do have the best starting ERA in the league, it is widely known that nearly every pitching staff uses something on the ball to get a better grip. This will be Bauer’s first start since the controversy.

The once mighty A’s ace Sonny Gray has not adapted well to being a Yankee. Gray had an encouraging start last time around giving up two runs over six innings but his ERA is still an unsightly 6.67. Yankees are trying to turn him around with a personal catcher in Austin Romine.

Sunday: Red Sox LHP Chris Sale vs. Rangers RHP Doug Fister

Wins have been hard to come by for Chris Sale this year but that doesn’t mean he’s not putting up gaudy numbers. Sale has allowed one earned run or less in five of his seven outings while striking out 51 in 42 innings.

Meanwhile, exiled former Red Sox pitcher Doug Fister is finally rounding into form as he has a respectable 2.88 ERA even though his 1-2 record doesn’t show it. It’s been a long couple of year for Fister as he hasn’t been nearly this good since his Detroit days three years ago.

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