St. Louis at NY Mets - Game 7, FOX, 8:19
Series tied, 3-3
Jeff Suppan, RH (12-7, 4.12) v. Oliver Perez, LH (3-13, 6.55)
ESPN and everyone else is going to spend the entire day harping on Perez's winning percentage and his ERA, and rightfully so because both are really bad, but let's take this from a different perspective.
Suppan away from Busch Stadium: 5.36 ERA, 1.68 WHIP, .313 BAA
Perez at Shea Stadium: 3.72 ERA, 1.09 WHIP, .176 BAA
Looks like a mismatch in Perez's favor when you take it that way, doesn't it? The Mets are already the superior team. They should win tonight. If they don't, they can't really blame injuries to Pedro and Duque, as much as it's tough to start a rookie and then a crappy lefty in games six and seven. It'll be their own doing, getting sonned by Jeff Weaver and having So Taguchi blow up their closer. They should've closed this out days ago. Now this is happening, and all bets are off. One of them gets to go to Detroit, the other one goes home. PLAYOFF BASEBALL, BABY.