It's Gil Meche (4.66 ERA) versus Daniel Cabrera (4.53 ERA) tonight in Maryland. As Chris Altruda notes in his game preview:
Meche (6-8, 4.66 ERA) is trying to win four straight starts for the first time since May 16-June 4, 2003, while pitching for Seattle. The right-hander has a 2.25 ERA during his winning streak, but is 0-5 in seven starts despite a 3.32 ERA versus the Orioles since the 2006 season.
Meanwhile, here's what SC at Camden Chat has to say about Cabrera:
Cabrera has, well, hit a wall. After his May 20th start, his ERA stood at 3.48. He was oupitching even optimistic predictions, really, and going seven routinely.
Since then, his ERA has risen to 4.53. Why? The walks are back in some part. Over his last 42 innings, he's walked 23. Not as awful as he used to be, but pretty bad. But the walks aren't killing him. May 20 and prior, he had just twice given up more hits than innings he'd pitched. Since then, he's done it five times, and the other two starts had him giving up six in six innings and six in seven innings.
The lack of strikeouts -- a problem that started last season -- are hurting him. When he doesn't have his best stuff, he's going to get rocked. Plus, the fact is he's throwing almost all fastballs. That's a great theory, and it worked well for a little bit. But his fastball is not so good that he can work six-seven innings off of that pitch exclusively on a consistent basis. He doesn't blow it by anyone anymore. His K/9 is a really pedestrian 5.28, which gives him a pretty crappy K-to-BB ratio, too.
I'm really not trying to harsh any buzzes, but Cabrera's as good as he's going to get unless he suddenly figures out how to strike batters out again. He's a fourth/fifth starter that can eat up innings.Pre-game question: who has the stronger organization overall (rookie ball to the Majors) Baltimore or Kansas City?