Bondo has looked great so far this season, though he hasn't factored in any decision with a 0-0 record. His ERA is holding at just 2.57, which is outstanding. His last outing, on Friday against the Blue Jays, was an absolutely spectacular performance, going nine innings and allowing just one run in a match up between him and Roy Halladay. If he comes out with something similar today against the Royals, the Tigers should sweep these guys right out of the ballpark.
On the other hand is Gil Meche, 1-1 on the year with an ERA at 3.10. Meche has looked pretty much like Gil Meche this year, doing a decent job but nothing necessarily outstanding or incredible. One might expect something more along the outstanding or incredible lines though, with the money KC is throwing at the guy ($55 million over five years). Meche left his last start against Baltimore early with a slight hamstring strain, so it'll be interesting to see if that plays into today's game at all. In his last outing against the Tigs, Meche suffered his only loss of the season thus far.
Something that's going to be important today will be if Bondo and the rest of the pitching staff can quiet David Dejesus. He had four hits (including a homer), and scored three runs yesterday and was the biggest part of the Kansas City comeback from being down 5-2. His bat needs to fall silent, or at least be quieted, in order for a Tigers' win today.
Keys to the game-
- The bottom of the line up really needs to pick up the slack. It'd be nice to see some solid at-bats out of those guys today.
- If Bondo gets another quality start, then he'll get his first win of the year.
- If Meche is on his game, the Tigs have to make him work in order to get to that weak KC bullpen early. Get the big fish out of the game so they can prey on the smaller ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment