Tampa Bay Rays (9-9) vs Houston Astros (12-5)
Blake Snell (0-2; 2.76) vs Charlie Morton (1-1; 2.81)
Rays Pregame:
Blake Snell has faced the Astros on one other occasion – things did not go well. In his 14th career start, Snell went three innings, surrendering four earned runs. If he’s going to get the Rays back into the win column tonight, several things need to happen.
- Save the Bullpen: Since the start of last season, Snell leads all ML pitchers (min. 20 starts) with an average of 19 pitches per inning. He has gone less than five innings in eight of his 22 career starts. With last nights news of Xavier Cedeno (forearm strain) going to the DL, Snell will look to work deep into tonight’s contest to help preserve the guys at the back-end. Manager Kevin Cash referenced some concern for his bullpen and thus led to his decision to leave Alex Cobb in the game after 96 pitches through six innings.
- Keep it in the Yard: Only Rich Hill and Noah Syndergaard have given up fewer HR/9 IP. Snell has only allowed six home runs in his career.
- A Little Less Cardio: He’s given 10 free-passes in his 16.1 IP so far this season. Francisco Liriano is the only player in the majors that has a higher BB/9 IP total. But it’s not just the number of walks, it’s the lack of strikeouts. He sports a 1.10 K/BB ratio which is third-worst in MLB. The Astros offense has seen ball-four on 57 occasions this season, that’s sixth in the AL.
Starting Lineups: #Rays #Astros pic.twitter.com/8L19JifAkg
— The Scrum Sports (@TheScrumSports) April 22, 2017
Astros Pregame:
At 12-5 the ‘Stros are off to their best 17-game start since 2006, the year after their most recent World Series trip. The club is currently top-three in the AL in hits (3rd), average (2nd), and on-base percentage (3rd).
Not Your Uncle Charlie:
Having made his debut in 2008, Charlie Morton has been around the league and has provided enough sample to draw analysis from. The consensus on Morton is that he does not have swing-and-miss stuff. At 33 years old, you wouldn’t expect him to suddenly turn things around. However, it appears as though that’s exactly what he’s done. In 2016, the average velocity on his fastball was a career-high 94.3 mph and he fanned a career-high 9.87 batters-per-nine-innings.
In 2017, he has increased his velocity (95.3 mph FB velocity) and he is getting more and more guys to swing-and-miss. His swinging-strike rate has climbed above 9% and much closer to the 9.5% league-average.
He’s Heating Up
Yuli Gurriel leads the team (.319) in average, and with his two doubles last night, tied Jose Altuve and Alex Bregman for the team-lead (4) in doubles. Over his last seven games, the second-year player from Cuba has posted a .522 BA with 1 HR and 4 RBI.
Misc Pregame:
Colby Rasmus gets a rehab start tonight in Double-A Montgomery.
Today in Baseball: Nolan Ryan picked up his first career victory as a member of the Astros. He went on to win 106 games with Houston.
