This week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s early MLB game schedule<\/strong><\/p>\nAfter a limited schedule last week, we’ve got a good selection of early games to look forward to over the next five days, albeit after a quiet start during the first two.<\/p>\n
There’s no doubt that the best potential pitching match-up is scheduled for Thursday when CC Sabathia and Justin Verlander are due to lock horns at Comerica Park.\u00c2\u00a0 CC’s last start, against the Red Sox, was affected by rain so he only pitched 4.2 innings in total, during which he gave up a pair of home runs. Verlander struck out nine and walked four against the Indians on Saturday as the Tigers won 6-4.<\/p>\n
They are not the only top pitchers you can watch live at a convenient time this week.<\/p>\n
Yovani Gallardo is the undisputed ace of the Brewers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 rotation and he has struck out 21 batters over 12 innings in his last two starts, although it took him 103 pitches to get through just five innings last time out against the D-Backs.\u00c2\u00a0 Gallardo faces Derek Lowe and the Braves on Wednesday.\u00c2\u00a0 The groundball specialist continues to disappoint for the Braves despite having four wins to his name.\u00c2\u00a0 He gave up seven runs to the Phillies in his most recent start, during which his opponent Jamie Moyer pitched a two-hit shutout.\u00c2\u00a0 The 47 year old will return to the mound against the Rockies and may face the 26 year old Esmil Rogers, although he has pitched poorly in his two starts since moving from the bullpen and Colorado will probably look elsewhere if another option is available.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile at Fenway, Josh Beckett needs to make a strong comeback after getting torched by the Yankees last time out. He will aim to do so against the Blue Jays who will have Shaun Marcum on the mound; a pitcher who knows all about making a comeback.\u00c2\u00a0 Marcum has\u00c2\u00a0been impressive\u00c2\u00a0this season\u00c2\u00a0after missing all of 2009 following Tommy John surgery, something that his 1-1 record really doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do justice to.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
In truth, win-loss records often don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t tell you much about how well a pitcher is performing and you will struggle to find a better example of that than Zack Greinke.\u00c2\u00a0 After his first seven starts of the season, the reigning Cy Young winner is holding opponents to a .231 batting average; however he has been lumbered with an 0-4 record.\u00c2\u00a0Maybe, just maybe, the KC hitters will be able to put up some sort of offense against the Indians on Thursday to allow Greinke to get his first win, although\u00c2\u00a0he would be advised to make it through all nine innings considering the way the Royals’ bullpen has been malfunctioning.<\/p>\n
It was expected that Greinke would have to battle against the inadequacies of his Royals teammates, but most people thought Felix Hernandez would be a strong bet to follow Greinke as a Cy Young winner when backed by a Seattle Mariners team tipped by many to win the AL West.\u00c2\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Mariners have been in dismal form for most of the first five weeks of the season and they haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been helped by Hernandez dealing with some back problems. King Felix has looked less-than regal in his last two starts, giving up 13 runs, including four homers, while pitching just 7.2 innings combined.\u00c2\u00a0 A game against the Orioles is a good opportunity to get back on track.<\/p>\n
One pitcher hopefully going in the opposite direction to Hernandez\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s recent trend is Ben Sheets.\u00c2\u00a0 The A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gave him a $10m contract over the offseason and after six starts it looked like $10m down the drain.\u00c2\u00a0 His seventh start was not quite a visit to the \u00e2\u20ac\u02dclast chance saloon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, as Oakland can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easily put $10m on the scrap heap, but another bad outing against the Rays would have seen him thrown from his horse and dragged towards the saloon doors.\u00c2\u00a0 With everything against him, the Texan came out fighting and struck out 8 over 6.1 innings, earning his second win of the year.\u00c2\u00a0 A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fans understandably are waiting for a second strong start in a row before believing in Big Ben and he gets his chance against C.J. Wilson and the Rangers on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Cardinals fans don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have the same concerns with their scheduled Thursday starter. Apart from one shaky outing against the Brewers on 11 April, Chris Carpenter is dealing as per usual.\u00c2\u00a0 Add in a Friday game from Wrigley and it should be an entertaining week, one which I’m determined not to miss out on.<\/p>\n
All times are in BST.<\/p>\n
Monday 10 May<\/h3>\n
No early games<\/p>\n
Tuesday 11 May<\/h3>\n
No early games<\/p>\n
Wednesday 12 May<\/h3>\n
17.35. Cincinnati at Pittsburgh (Homer Bailey – Zack Duke)
\n18.10. Atlanta at Milwaukee (Derek Lowe – Yovani Gallardo)
\n18.10. Chicago White Sox at Minnesota (John Danks – Carl Pavano)
\n18.10. Washington at NY Mets (Craig Stammen – Mike Pelfrey)
\n18.35. Toronto at Boston (Shaun Marcum – Josh Beckett)
\n19.20. Florida at Chicago Cubs (Chris Volstad – Carlos Silva)
\n20.10. Philadelphia at Colorado (Jamie Moyer – Esmil Rogers)<\/p>\n
Thursday 13 May<\/h3>\n
17.35. Seattle at Baltimore (Felix Hernandez – Kevin Millwood)
\n18.05. NY Yankees at Detroit (CC Sabathia – Justin Verlander)
\n18.40. Houston at St. Louis (Bud Norris – Chris Carpenter)
\n19.05. Oakland at Texas (Ben Sheets – C.J. Wilson)
\n19.10. Cleveland at Kansas City (David Huff – Zack Greinke)
\n20.45. San Diego at San Francisco (Mat Latos – Jonathan Sanchez)<\/p>\n
Friday 14 May<\/h3>\n
19.20. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (Jeff Karstens – Tom Gorzelanny)<\/p>\n
All the above games can be followed via various resources on MLB.com (Gameday, At Bat with Gameday Audio and MLB.tv), while ESPN America\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s MLB schedule can be found <\/em>here<\/em><\/a>. A complete schedule of MLB games can be found on MLB.com. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cubs’ Starlin Castro made a big impression in his Major League debut against the Reds. Plus a comprehensive guide to this week’s schedule of early MLB games<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,4],"tags":[82,25,70,553,66],"class_list":["post-7857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-hit-ground-ball","category-mlb-2","tag-bst-guide","tag-espn-america","tag-gamedayaudio","tag-mlb-2","tag-mlb-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7857"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7860,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7857\/revisions\/7860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"WhgbHlSq\"](\"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/wp-content\/WhgbHlSq.jpg\" "\\"WhgbHlSq\\"")
One of my aims with WHGB this season is to highlight just how much brilliant baseball Brits can follow live without needing to stay up all night.\u00c2\u00a0 I normally have plenty of material to work with because catching a ballgame or two is my favourite way to relax during an evening; however for one reason or another I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much time for that over the past week (some of those reasons involved other BGB-related work, so rest assured I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t been slacking off) .<\/p>\n