ARIZONA -109:
This game features a couple of groundball pitchers with Brandon Webb for Zona and Jason Jennings for Colorado getting the starts.
I know games at Coors Field can get pretty wild at times, but I think Arizona?s starter, Brandon Webb, has lot more going for him:
First off, Webb is a guy that tends to pitch as well on the road as he does at home. His home/away numbers over his career are almost identical and this is something you usually only see in the elite pitchers. Not saying he?s an elite pitcher, but it is a big plus for him and shows he can adjust to different surroundings and deal with pressure better.
Webb?s career numbers at Coors Field are also very good. In 7 career starts at Coors, he is 3-3 with a career ERA of just 4.22 there and has only given up a total of 3 home runs over those 7 starts. Not many starters in the bigs show numbers like that there.
The biggest angle for Webb in this game though is the fact that he absolutely dominates right-handed hitters and he?ll be facing a Rockies lineup that is almost strictly right-handed. Webb over his career has held righties to a .208 average and has given up just 11 home runs to them. This compares to a .276 career average to lefties and a total of 39 career home runs to lefties. I would be very surprised to see more than 2 or 3 left-handed bats in there lineup today and even so, one of those lefty bats will be Jennings, their pitcher.
Webb also shows a history of pitching very well in his early season starts. He sports a 6-1 career record in April along with a very nice ERA of 2.40
Jason Jennings gets the start for the Rockies and unlike Webb he has a history of struggling early in the season. In the month of April over the course of his career, he has given up more home runs (19) than any other month and also has a career ERA in April of 6.32 which is over a full run higher than any other month. As a matter of fact, he only has 6 career wins in April which covers 21 starts.
Jennings also has a history of allowing a ton of base runners via base hits/walks and that?s not a good system for pitching at Coors. His spring numbers show much the same as he has allowed a total of 34 hits/walks over 20 innings of work.
Bottom line, I think Arizona pushes enough runs over off Jennings to be able to coast to an easy win in this one, especially if Webb takes care of his biz.
Good luck!
-ndnfan
