The Pastime

Esteban Loaiza takes the hill against Justin Verlander for Game Two.

Well, not literally. It’s not like we’re going to tune in and see some kind of American Gladiator battle on the pitchers mound between Loaiza and Verlander, going at it with foam staffs. Although that would be fun. I’m sure Steve Lyons would have commentary that’s just as insightful as what he offered in Game One…

Here are the stat lines for Verlander and Loaiza over their last 15 starts of the season. I tend to think the last 15 games are more indicative of how they’re going to pitch than their whole season.

Wow, I’m surprised. They are very, very alike. The only real differences lie in Loaiza’s lower walk rate, and his higher percentage of unearned runs. Plus, he doesn’t throw the ball 100, like Verlander does.

Both pitchers tend to stay around the strike zone, keeping walks to a minimum. They don’t have huge strikeout rates, but they rely on their defenses to take care of balls put in play to generate outs.

That could be a problem for Oakland. Loaiza gets about half of his outs via the groundball, and with Jimenez and Scutaro up the middle, the Oakland defense isn’t what it should be. I’m worried that Jimenez could bite the A’s again with his fielding, or lack thereof…