J. J. Putz- SEA- Cold- Putz had a blown save last night, giving up a game tying homer to Mark Teixeira in the 9th inning. He has not thrown a 1-2-3 inning since July 20th, which was his first game back off the DL. Since then he has given up at least 1 hit in every one of his 10 games pitched. Putz has allowed 15 hits and 6 walks in his 12-2/3 IP since coming back. He may still be feeling the after effects of his hyperextended elbow. At any rate he is not performing up to his past standards.
David Eckstein- TOR- Hot- In the “You can’t trust everything you read on the Internet” department, the Blue Jays’ team site on mlb.com says, “Eckstein has hit .367 (11-for-30) over his past eight games.” It looks like they took the hits Eckstein accumulated in his last 9 games and the at bats from only the 8 games before last night’s 3-for-4 effort. So, he’s really hitting .324 over his last 9 games, which is still not too shabby. Eckstein’s sporadic playing time, though, make him not much of a fantasy stud, not even if he qualifies at 2B now or in the near future in your league, where he played his 4th game of the season.
Brandon Inge- DET- Cold- After a pair of multi-hit games, Inge was back to taking the collar last night, and ended the game by looking at a called third strike with the tying run in scoring position. When Inge was last at a .300+ average, on April 17th, his Batting EYE was at .67, far above his usual numbers. Since then he has a Batting EYE of .40 and his average has sunk to .218. Inge has had more than his share of bad luck, with a BHIPx of .188 far below even what would be expected of a slow player, but his lack of strike zone control is not helping.
Brendan Donnelly- CLE- Cold- On Monday, despite giving up a hit and a walk in his first appearance since coming back from Tommy John surgery, Donnelly did not allow a run in his inning of work. Last night he was not so lucky. Donnelly was charged with 4 runs after allowing 5 hits to the 7 batters he faced as the Orioles broke the game open against him in the 9th inning. He is definitely not back to the solid middle relief form he showed in his days with the Angels.
Jon Lester- BOS- Hot- Lester shut out the Rangers for 7 innings last night on 4 hits and a walk. However, he pitched 7-1/3. In that last 1/3 of an inning he allowed 3 runs on 3 hits, so it was still a solid quality start, but not quite as awesome as it could have been. Lester’s success this season has come despite a BHIP% of .302, so there might be some room for improvement still.
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