Home MLBBST Game Guides Saturday’s early MLB games: Halladay, Burnett and Alex White

Saturday’s early MLB games: Halladay, Burnett and Alex White

by Matt Smith

CovHlSqWe’ve got seven early games today.  Roy Halladay starts for the Phillies, A.J. Burnett faces his former team and Alex White makes his Major League debut. 

All times are listed in BST.

18.10. St. Louis at Atlanta (Jake Westbrook – Brandon Beachy)

The Cards and Braves couldn’t be separated over nine innings last night.  Nick Punto made the difference in the end with a two-run triple in the eleventh inning in what Tony La Russa described as “a hellacious game”, whatever that means.  Beachy will look to help the Braves level the series today.

18.10. NY Mets at Philadelphia (Jon Niese – Roy Halladay)

This is what makes the Phillies so tough.  The Mets were comprehensively outplayed yesterday, losing 10-3 with their three runs only coming in the top of the ninth when the game was long since over as a contest.  Normally you have to put such a defeat to one side, wake up the next day with a positive attitude and try to bounce back straight away.  The problem for the Mets is that in this situation the Phillies can turn around and throw Roy Halladay at them.  It could be another long game for New York.

18.10. LA Angels at Tampa Bay (Joel Pineiro – James Shields)

The Rays had their five-game winning streak broken yesterday by the Angels.  Los Angeles got the better of ace David Price and they’ll need a similarly impressive performance today to get the better of James Shields, who pitched a complete game shut-out last time out.  Joel Pineiro makes his season debut for the Halos after starting the year on the Disabled List. 

21.05. Toronto at NY Yankees (Kyle Drabek – A.J. Burnett)

The Blue Jays beat the Yankees 5-3 yesterday despite Robinson Cano going deep twice for the Bronx Bombers.  A.J. Burnett faces his former team today and he has had an encouraging start to the season, although he walked five batters when he faced the Blue Jays back on 19 April.  The talented young Drabek got his second career win last time out against the Rangers.

21.05. Texas at Oakland (Colby Lewis – Brett Anderson)

After sweeping the Kansas City Royals last weekend, the Rangers have lost four of their last five games, including last night’s series opener against the A’s.  Colby Lewis has taken the loss in his last three starts, so all of the trends are going against Texas but that could just mean that they are due to return to winning ways.  If so, they’ll be battling to do it against the in-form Brett Anderson, who has reduced his ERA to 1.56 with two recent impressive outings against the Red Sox and Mariners.

21.05. San Francisco at Washington (Jonathan Sanchez – John Lannan)

Jason Marquis outdueled Tim Lincecum last night, proving once again that you never know what’s going to happen when the ump shouts ‘play ball’.  Marquis pitched a complete game shut-out whilst also driving in a run to help his own cause.  John Lannan will try to follow Marquis’ lead today.

23.05. Detroit at Cleveland (Rick Porcello – Alex White)

It’s a big day for Alex White.  The right-hander, selected in the first round of the 2009 amateur draft, is scheduled to make his Major League debut and he couldn’t be joining the team at a better time.  Cleveland are playing brilliantly at the moment and Carlos Santana’s walk-off grand slam yesterday summed up their recent form.   

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  ESPN America is concentrating on the NHL playoffs once again.  The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.

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