I know we all wish Wandy nothing but the best today, and hope to see him expand upon his credible debut start.
Right?
Rodriguez is possessed of a career 4.70 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP against the Cubs, which doesn't sound so great, except that both numbers are well below his overall totals.
So maybe he's been a little bit better than normal against the Cubs in general, but gotta say, his two starts at Wrigley have not gone well, with two homers and 14 hits over 9-2/3 innings pitched in two games.
These are facts, just like it's a fact that Derrek Lee has a lifetime 1.952 OPS against Wandy.
But what can I say? Hope springs eternal, especially when considering the careers of lefties.
Wandy Power!™
It's funny what will get people going off half-cocked. Not so much here, but over at The Chronicle, a bunch of folks (including Chip Bailey) were ripping into Garner for removing Sampson so early.
The early exit did harken back to last season's final game, when Sampson pitched well and still was removed early, basically because Garner felt that Sampson at least at the time didn't have the strength to go deep into the game.
But we fans (and I'll include myself here in general) do a lot of conclusion-jumping, when we're probably in possession of less than 50% of the facts. It turns out Sampson had a left calf injury. Garner knew about it, we didn't.
Fortunately, it doesn't sound like the injury--suffered while running Friday--is going to affect Chris for his next start, but is anyone dropping apologies to Garner at the Chronicle blogs this morning?
Well, no, it doesn't work that way, does it?
Mixed, I guess mostly bad, news out of Austin last night. Fernando Nieve was unimpressive again in his second start, as he was pulled after four innings for the second straight game. Four k's, only one walk, and he did pound the zone with almost 70% of his pitches being called strikes, but the results weren't so hot. Nine hits, three runs--and 87 pitches--over the four.
Hunter Pence homered and had an outfield assist from his right field position. . . but he's also hitting .158 on the year.
The Express lost to Iowa 8 - 1.