I don’t normally make a point of highlighting early MLB games over the weekend. All British baseball fans know that there will be a decent choice of games to watch at a convenient time on Saturday and Sunday. However, one early game tonight deserves a mention, just in case you may have missed it otherwise.Â
The Mets take on the Giants at AT&T Park from 21.10 BST in a game that will see Johan Santana and Randy Johnson come head-to-head for the first time. Â
MLB.com has published an interesting article about the meeting of these two “iconic southpaws” in which Carlos Delgado offers his thoughts on the starting pitchers:
“Probably Randy is a little more overpowering than Johan”, Delgado said, “but Johan has a combination of good control and a devastating changeup. Whatever their arsenal is, they have established themselves as dominators and intimidators, and hitters know that”.
Delgado then goes on to talk about the approach the hitters will have to take:
“As a hitter, you should bring a good approach every single day. But when you face a guy like that, you know that you don’t have many freebies or many breaks. You’ve just got to make sure you do what the situation calls for, the little things, and execute”.
It should be a classic encounter. Johan Santana is looking to stay unbeaten and to keep his ERA down at a ridiculously low figure (0.78), so the Giants are going to have to work very hard if they are to help Randy Johnson to his 299th career win.
The game is a FOX broadcast in the States which means that it is subject to a blackout on MLB.tv for fans over there. That restriction doesn’t apply to us though, so we can enjoy the contest via this method on MLB.com alongside the GamedayAudio and Gameday options. The game is also being broadcast live on ESPN America.
2 comments
My girlfriend and I attended this game yesterday! It was a super-hot afternoon, even for San Francisco, and the game ended up being much more of a slugging contest than I think anyone expected, with both teams combining for 28 hits. Even SF managed to score 5 runs off Santana, but Randy got taken out pretty early, only managing to go four innings. In the end, the Mets prevailed, but it was a pretty plucky performance from the Giants, despite another loss.
Must have been a great game to go. I had a feeling this strong pitching match-up on paper would produce a few runs (that’s normally how it works out).