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Recaps
Picks
1) Iraq vs. South Africa - 2 goals or fewer
2) Who Will Win The St. Jude's Classic: Brian Gay vs. Any Other Player - Gay
3) New York Mets @ New York Yankees - N.Y. Yankees
4) Detroit Tigers @ Pittsburgh Pirates - Detroit
5) Arizona State vs. North Carolina - Arizona State
6) Jimmie Johnson vs. Tony Stewart - Johnson has a better finishing position
7) Chicago White Sox @ Milwaukee Brewers - Chicago
8) Spain vs. New Zealand - 4 goals or more
9) Seattle Mariners @ Colorado Rockies - Colorado
10) Houston Astros @ Arizona Diamondbacks - Arizona
11) Southern Miss vs. Texas - 10 runs or fewer
12) Los Angeles Lakers @ Orlando Magic - Los Angeles
13) St. Louis Cardinals @ Cleveland Indians - Cleveland
14) The Result Of Albert Pujols' 3rd Plate Appearance: Hit/Walk vs. Other - Other
15) Final Basket Of Game 6 Of The NBA Finals: 2PFG vs. 3PFG/FT - 3PFG/FT
Previews
 South Africa hosts the Confederation Cup ahead of the World Cup in 2010. |
 Iraq won the Asian Cup in 2007 but still has much to prove to the world. |
| Recent Form | |
| Poland (1:0) | Poland (1:1) |
| Portugal (0:2) | Qatar (0:1) |
| Norway (2:1) | South Korea (1:2) |
| Chile (0:2) | Saudi Arabia (0:0) |
| Cameroon (3:2) | Kuwait (1:1) |
| Most matches took place at neutral sites | |
``We have tried our best to prepare the team for the FIFA Confederations Cup despite the short period that we had. Our team have good players who are skilful, and I'm really optimistic that we can deliver good performances in the tournament," ---Iraq coach Bora Milutinovic
| 2009 PGA Tour Results | |
| Player | To Par |
| Brian Gay | -14 |
| Bryce Molder | -13 |
| Robert Allenby | -11 |
| Paul Goydos | -10 |
| Heath Slocum | -9 |
| Vaughn Taylor | -9 |
| Woody Austin | -9 |
| Click players' names to see their results in 2009 | |
Brian Gay has been the most successful golfer of the group including himself and those chasing him and a big part of that success has been his ability to get himself out of tough spots. He had to scramble to save par on a number of holes to maintain his lead in the 3rd round, as he talks about in this interview yesterday. Bryce Molder is the player with the best shot in that he has the least ground to make up. He was an all-star golfer in college and overcame a number of congenital defects, such as being born with no left pectoral muscle, to get where he is today. Of the group within 5 strokes of the lead Brian Gay is also the best performer in the fourth round. He is the only one in the group whose final round score is better than his score the first three rounds on average in 2009
4) The Detroit Tigers wrap up a three game Interleague series with the Pittsburgh Pirates today at PNC Park. The main sideline for the Tigers in this game is the play of Dontrelle Willis and how he'll do in his first at bat in over a year. For his career Willis is batting .234, with a .359 slugging average which would make him a very strong presence at the bottom of the order.
Dontrelle Willis throws out Podsednik from the ground in a game this season.
Starting opposite Willis will be Ross Ohlendorf. Ohlendorf has been up and down this season, though not to the extremes Willis has, on his way to recording a 4.82 ERA and 1.32 WHIP. His last couple of starts have been difficult for him, a 6 inning effort against the Braves with a game ERA of 4.50 and a 41/3 inning outing against the Mets with a game ERA of 10.38. He'll be facing a Tigers team who have struggled to score lately, with only 7 runs in their last three games. They are batting around their season average of .259 in that time, and have a .450 slugging average in those games so they are getting the hits, but have been unable to string them together, have had poor luck hitting into double plays, and have exercised some questionable base running in those games.
Either Dontrelle Willis will have to keep from losing it mid-way through or the Tigers will have to see a major resurgence in their offense.
Pittsburgh is in the same boat, only their lack of scoring this season has stemmed from a lack of power in the batting order. They have had some breakout games in that department, including their game yesterday which saw two of their league trailing 36 home runs this season, but overall it is not something they can depend on. The Pirates are 11-24 this season when they do not hit a home run and Willis is not big on giving up homers with fewer than one every 8 innings pitched this season. What the Pirates can do is scratch out runs. They will need to continue batting near .300 as they have for their past three games. If they do that and Willis continues his trend of losing control in the middle of games and walking men on base it could get ugly very quickly for Detroit. Overall the Pirates have the stronger bullpen, especially when it comes to giving up home runs. Detroit should still be able to score off the Pirates' bullpen, but a major run would not be expected. Overall, I don't see Pittsburgh repeating their power hitting performance from yesterday, and would set 10 hits as a high mark for them in this game. Their biggest chance for victory lies in a Willis meltdown or a big hit off the Tigers' bullpen. Those things are certainly not unlikely to happen so I would not feel too nervous about picking the Pirates today. If Willis does not meltdown however, I would not give Pittsburgh a snowball's chance in hell.
7) It's funny, the main storylines for both the White Sox and the Brewers today revolve around pitchers in their bullpens. For the Brewers it is relief pitcher Trevor Hoffman's proximity to a 27 year old franchise record. He has pitched 18 scoreless innings so far this season and would break the record with his 19th today. For the White Sox it is the new addition of 2007 draft pick Aaron Poreda who pitched his first Major league effort on Friday, going for 22/3 innings while allowing only one hit. Unfortunately for both pitchers they were brought in facing 7 run deficits. That both games in this Interleague series between the Brewers and White Sox have become blowouts belies the fact that today's game has all the makings of a bullpen duel, though perhaps only after the starting pitchers give up more than their fair share of runs.
Both teams have talented bullpens, but will their performance even matter? Only if Looper or Buehrle, or both, continue their shaky ways.
Chicago will start Mark Buehrle today, easily their most dependable starter all season long. Even the steady Buehrle has been having some trouble lately, however. In his last start, against Detroit, he gave up 5 earned runs from 4 hits in 61/3 innings while walking an unusually high 4 batters. In the game before that he pitched decently against Oakland, going for 8 innings but still giving up 4 earned runs, and the White Sox lost badly as they could not generate a single run in support. He's been strong enough that it's hard to imagine he'll have the same trouble throwing strikes, but two such games in a row is already unlikely yet it's happened. Fortunately for Buehrle the Brewers appear to be headed into an epic slump. They were dominated by Jose Contreras who had just returned from a stint in the minors after an awful start to his season. Sure, he probably managed to improve some wrinkles in his mechanics in the lower pressure environment but Milwaukee surely played their part.
On the other side is Braden Looper. He has been called an innings eater, meaning he has the ability to go deep into games, saving the bullpens. That won't be necessary for a talented Brewers' bullpen that is itching at a chance to show their stuff. Looper has given up 12 home runs in 68 innings, or one every 5 or 6 innings, so he might get chased off early. Ideally he would be worked deep into the count by White Sox batters hitting foul, letting the bullpen in early without giving up runs, but the White Sox are actually hitting well in their past three games with a .414 slugging average resulting in 1.57 total bases per hit, or a double every other hit or so. To me that suggests runs will be scored by the White Sox.
Overall I think Buerhle has a better chance of limiting runs by the opposition. If he walks too many batters he could get into trouble, and the Brewers are certainly good at drawing bases on balls, but I'm counting on him throwing an overabundance of strikes. If Poreda can work his magic and Dotel can get back on track I favor the White Sox to hold on to a lead down the stretch and win this game.
Arizona will try and provide young Billy Buckner with some run support today, though they may not need it.
The Astros will face rookie pitcher Billy Buckner who has performed tremendously at the AAA level for the past couple of years, but has been ridiculously up and downARI 4 - 9 SF
ARI 3 - 2 LAD in the Majors this year. In his last start he gave up 8 earned runs off of 13 hits and failed to make it out of the 6th inning, yet in his previous start he shutout the Dodgers at Dodger Stadium for 6 innings, allowing only 4 hits. Houston will start Brian Moehler who has posted a 6.95 ERA and 1.73 WHIP this season through 44 innings this season. In his last start, against the Cubs, he gave up 5 earned runs from 8 hits and only made it through the 3rd inning.
Ivan `Pudge' Rodriguez tags out Chicago's Mike Fontenot at home earlier this season.
Overall, I favor Billy Buckner in this matchup as he's shown better stuff this season when he is on. Moehler has had some solid games, but I think Buckner is the better pitcher at this stage in their careers. As great as Ivan Rodriguez's accomplishment and as much as his experience will help defensively he has not been contributing at the plate much lately. He has gone 6-for-31 in June, all singles, for a .194 batting average. I think Arizona's lineup is more likely to click all together with Houston getting spotty bursts leading to players getting on base, but not being batted in for runs. With Houston's bullpen giving up a home run once every 8 or 9 innings I can see Houston giving up a small lead, or falling further behind after the 7th inning and would trust Arizona's relievers with that lead much more.
14) Well, looks like Pujols walked in his first plate appearance in this game.
 Albert Pujols' Hits + Walks, game-by-game, from most recent to first game of the season (left-to-right). |
UPDATE: Cliff Lee has pitched a no-hitter through 6 innings and is still under 70 pitches. I think he can keep up the no hitter until at least the 80 pitch mark. So, go with `Any Other Result'.
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