Tomorrow, the Giants begin a three-game series at home against the Cardinals. The match-ups will look like this:
Game 1 - Jake Westbrook v. Jonathan Sanchez
Game 2 - Jaime Garcia v. Matt Cain
Game 3 - Kyle Lohse v. Barry Zito
Dennis of Pitchers Hit Eighth was kind enough to answer five questions about the Cards and the upcoming series. Check 'em out after the jump...
1. Jake Westbrook didn't do too well in his last start -- allowing six hits, five walks and eight earned runs in 4.1 IP while striking out only three. He'll face the Giants in the first game of the series. Can we expect Westbrook to rebound from his previous start?
I certainly expect some sort of rebound from Westbrook, although I don't necessarily expect him to be dominant. In giving up the five walks and all the earned runs, he really allowed the home plate umpire's strike zone to bother him quite a lot. Westbrook relies on getting the strike at the knees to be effective, and when he didn't get it in his first start, he failed to adjust properly. He simply elevated the ball, and he paid a heavy price for that decision. I expect him to return to his normal approach in his 2nd start.
2. Last year, Jaime Garcia did this to the Giants. In his debut this season, he threw another complete game shutout....is he essentially the same pitcher that dominated the Giants last year?
Based on just the one start, Jaime appears to be much the same pitcher, although his complete game this season included 9 strikeouts. That's well above his typical K/9 rate, and it's quite likely that he'll regress toward the mean quickly. Fortunately for Jaime, there is a lot to potentially be learned from the Clayton Kershaw performance against the Giants.
3. Albert Pujols hasn't gotten off to a hot start. Obviously we'll start to see him produce at an All-Star/MVP level sooner or later -- but overall, do you foresee the 2011 season as a down year for Pujols?
Overall, I do see 2011 as a down year by Albert standards, although that's a relative thing. I just think that opposing teams would rather throw 4 straight pitches 8 inches off the plate inside to Pujols rather than risk looking foolish. Only 1 mistake has been made to Albert the entire year, and he drilled it into the opposing team's bullpen at Busch. Given the Cardinals inability to string together hits, it simply doesn't make sense to challenge Albert right now. That's a trend that I think will continue until other guys start to hit more consistently for a bit more power.
4. Do you see the Cardinals as the favorites to win the NL Central?
No, I don't see the Cardinals as the favorites, and I think that they'll be fortunate to be in the wild card race along with teams like the Braves and either the Brewers or Reds. The Reds are off to a great start, but I still think that a healthy Brewers team will have a lot to say about the outcome in the NL Central by the end of the season. They clearly miss Corey Hart right now, though.
5. Who takes the series -- Giants or Cards?
Since the Cardinals are scheduled to miss both Lincecum and Bumgarner, I'm picking the Redbirds to take 2/3. If we were discussing a 4 game series, I'd call it 2-2, and I'd probably guess that the Giants would actually outscore the Cardinals overall.
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Thanks again to Dennis for participating. I recommend you follow him on Twitter @gr33nazn and be sure to check out Pitchers Hit Eighth for Cardinals analysis.
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