Two pitchers headed in completely different directions hook up from laiyongcai92's blog

 Friday night in St. Petersburg Orlando Arcia Jersey , Fla.Blake Snell, the American League pitcher of the month for August, goes for the Tampa Bay Rays against the floundering Dylan Bundy and the Baltimore Orioles in the opener of a three-game set at Tropicana Field.While Snell is 17-5 with a 2.02 ERA and a Cy Young candidate after going 4-0 with a 1.04 ERA in August, Bundy hasn’t won since July 29 — and it has been ugly.Article continues below ...The Rays, 22-11 since the July 31 non-waiver trade deadline to sneak into the American League wild-card picture, come in 7-3 in their last 10 games. They were still a long shot for the playoffs and if they don’t make it they can point to their troubles with the lowly Orioles as a key reason.The Birds fly in with 41 wins but are 8-8 against the Rays, outscoring them 102-77 in those 16 games.“I think every year, there are some teams Jonathan Villar Jersey , for whatever reason — I won’t say match up well, because I think we match up well with a lot of clubs, we just don’t perform well,” Rays manager Kevin Cash says. “We’ve got an opportunity to perform well. …“It’s a big series. It’s a big homestand. We’re going to face some teams who are in different spots in the standings right now, but I’ve said it for a long time, Baltimore is a team with a lot of young guys who are getting opportunities.”Snell, who has a streak of 14 straight home games (dating to last season) of allowing one earned run or fewer runs, has one of his losses against the Orioles. On May 13 http://www.brewersfanproshop.com/authentic-lorenzo-cain-jersey , the left-hander worked 3 1/3 innings, giving up three home runs and five earned runs.He tied the club record with for wins in a month with four in August, yielding two earned runs in 22 innings. He has already equaled the 17 wins by Matt Moore in 2013. David Price holds the club mark of 20 wins, set in 2012.For the season, Snell, 1-2 with a 4.98 ERA in four career starts against Baltimore, has 177 strikeouts in 151 2/3 innings.Bundy is 0-4 with an 8.51 ERA in his last six starts, allowing nine home runs in those games. He has yielded at least one homer in 10 straight starts while falling to 7-13 with a 5.36 ERA.He is 2-1 with a 4.62 ERA in three starts against the Rays this season and 3-3 with a 5.67 ERA in nine games (eight starts) against Tampa Bay in his career.The Orioles lost their 99th game of the season as Andrew Cashner allowed three home runs in a 5-2 loss to the Mariners on Wednesday night in Seattle.The Birds were 0-for-14 with runners in scoring position in their latest failure.“There were some opportunities there Jhoulys Chacin Jersey ,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said after that game. “It seems like every play we make is magnified by our inability to score runs.”The current Orioles are 11-for-44 (.250) lifetime against Snell. Adam Jones is 3-for-7 (.429) and Trey Mancini 3-for-8 (.375), and Mark Trumbo is 2-for-9 (.222).The current Rays are a combined 16-for-61 (.262) with five homers against Bundy — C.J. Cron with three of those homers while going 4-for-13 (.308) against the right-hander. Mallex Smith is 4-for-12 (.333) and Carlos Gomez is 1-for-7 (.143).The Rays should get Tommy Pham back from his latest injury. Pham was resting a sore groin Wednesday.“He’s missed enough time already with some fluke injuries that were out of his control,” Cash said. “So I think two days off will really do well. But he came in today feeling better.”The Orioles released veteran Craig Gentry on Wednesday, a surprising move for a September team going nowhere. Gentry had been designated for assignment last Friday. CHICAGO (AP) — Christian Yelich and the Milwaukee Brewers were on top of the NL Central for much of the season’s first half. Then Anthony Rizzo and the Chicago Cubs moved into the lead of what just might be baseball’s best division.Then Yelich powered the Brewers to one more charge.So of course, it’s going to extra innings.Milwaukee visits Chicago on Monday for the first tiebreaker in major league history in which the loser doesn’t go home. The winner advances to the Division Series, the loser to Tuesday’s wild-card game against the loser of the NL West tiebreaker later Monday between Colorado and the Los Angeles Dodgers.“Just like the last couple weeks, we’ve approached almost every one of these games like a do-or-die game,” Brewers slugger Ryan Braun said. “Tomorrow won’t be any different. Obviously Jeremy Jeffress Jersey , it will be a challenging place for us to go and win but we’re playing good baseball and if we go in there and do the things we’ve done over the last couple of weeks we’ll forget about where we are.”The winner at Wrigley Field gets home-field advantage throughout the NL playoffs, starting with a Division Series on Thursday against the wild-card winner.“We put ourself in a position to come down to one game to win the division and get a couple days off,” Rizzo said after Sunday’s 10-5 victory over St. Louis. “If we win it, we’ll be ecstatic. If we lose, we’ve played more games in a row before, so we’ll be ready to play.”Chicago had a five-game lead on Sept. 2, but Milwaukee won seven straight and nine of 10 overall to finish with a 95-67 record. Yelich led the way, rising to the top of the NL MVP conversation and making a bid for the Triple Crown by hitting .383 with 13 homers and 42 RBIs in his last 30 games.“We need to be ready to go Jesus Aguilar Jersey ,” Yelich said. “They are a great team. We’ve played each other tough all year. It’s only fitting that we have to do one more.”The playoff-tested Cubs are going for their third straight NL Central title. They went 11-8 against the Brewers this season but dropped two of three in each of their two September series.Planning for a possible tiebreaker, Chicago has Jose Quintana lined up on regular rest. The left-hander is 6-2 with a 1.60 ERA in 10 starts against Milwaukee.“He’s pitched really well against us all year,” Yelich said. “I’m sure they know that. We know that. It’s going to come down to execution like it has all year. It should be a fun one.”Milwaukee did not announce a starter, but the Brewers’ deep bullpen might be the biggest concern for the Cubs.“The big thing is to get up early and hold onto a lead, that’s the big thing,” Chicago manager Joe Maddon said. “To stay out of the beefier part of their bullpen also, they’re very good.”