Brian Matusz makes his 8th start of the year tonight, and is coming off his worst outing of the year. I think he is due to toss a gem.

For the year, Matusz is 2-3 with a 4.91 era (era jumped a full run after being knocked around against the Twins).

He has pitched 40.1 innings, allowed 46 hits, 2 homers, 14 walks, with 33 k’s. He is holding opposing hitters to a .735 OPS against, and averaging 7.36 k’s per 9 innings.

It is interesting to see that he is allowing a .288 batting average against (.290 last year) and a .343 on-base percentage (.340 last year). The biggest difference between last-year and this year is the reduced slugging percentage of .394 (.483 last year) that reflects in the lowered OPS against.

Like I said above, I think he is due to pitch a gem. Most importantly, it is time for him to turn it up a notch. He has to be a bit more pitch efficient (currently 16.8 pitches per inning) and start working a bit deeper in games. (6 of his 7 starts have been 6.1 innings or less).

In 5 of his 7 starts he has allowed 3 er or less. Clearly he has been solid and is giving the O’s the chance to win nearly every time-out. Still, the evolution from solid-starter towards front of the rotation starter needs to take place during this year.

No time better than tonight for that to begin.

Chris Stoner
Chris Stoner

Owner

Chris Stoner founded Baltimore Sports and Life in 2009. He has appeared as a radio guest with 1090 WBAL, 105.7 The Fan, CBS 1300, Q1370, WOYK 1350, WKAV 1400, and WNST 1570. He has also been interviewed by The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore Business Journal, and PressBox (TV). As Owner, his responsibilities include serving as the Managing Editor, Publicist, & Sales Director.

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