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Friday, 9 August: Chris Tillman vs. Ryan Vogelsong
| Career Numbers | Tillman vs. Giants | Vogelsong vs. O's |
|---|---|---|
| IP | 2.0 | 2.2 |
| ERA | 27.00 | 3.38 |
| FIP | 10.13 | 3.13 |
| Slash Line (Past Teams) | .600/.538/1.300 | .200/.200/.300 |
| Slash Line (Current Players) | .500/.571/.833 | .091/.091/.091 |
Chris Tillman will make his second career start against the Giants and second at AT&T Park. Hopefully we'll see something better than his first, as he lasted just two innings and gave up 6 earned runs. Nobody in the current Giants lineup has more than 5 PA (that's what happens when you only face 13 hitters), so there isn't much that can be drawn from those numbers.
Vogelsong, now 36, has faced the O's just once in a 2.2 inning relief appearance. As the numbers indicate, nothing major occurred and he lasted longer than Tillman did in a start. Additionally, he's got pretty solid career numbers at AT&T Park (.691 OPS in 50 appearances). Fun fact: Scott Feldman has the most PAs against Vogelsong among all current O's. Naturally, he's hit-less over 4 PA.
Saturday, 10 August: Wei-Yin Chen vs. Chad Gaudin
| Career Numbers | Chen vs. Giants | Gaudin vs. O's |
|---|---|---|
| IP | - | 21.1 |
| ERA | - | 5.48 |
| FIP | - | 4.46 |
| Slash Line (Past Teams) | - | .337/.378/.533 |
| Slash Line (Current Players) | .375/.375/.675 | .323/.323/.484 |
Scott Feldman is being skipped in the rotation, which means Chen will make his first career start against the Giants on Saturday night. In the interest of having something else to say here, he's actually got slightly better numbers in day games than in night games (.688 vs. .719 OPS) although he's got nearly 100 more innings at night.
Up against Chen is Chad Gaudin. He's been rostered by a number of different teams in his career, but he's making just his second start against the O's. The majority of the numbers you see above have come from relief appearances. He's been very solid in 27 home appearances (6 starts).
Sunday, 11 August: Bud Norris vs. Matt Cain
| Career Numbers | Norris vs. Giants | Cain vs. O's |
|---|---|---|
| IP | 23.0 | - |
| ERA | 3.58 | - |
| FIP | 3.66 | - |
| Slash Line (Past Teams) | .200/.310/.318 | - |
| Slash Line (Current Players) | .239/.316/.366 | .200/.195/.350 |
As Houston was once upon a time an NL team, Norris actually has a few starts against the Giants. ERA and FIP aren't great, but he's allowed just a .628 OPS in 23 innings (4 starts). With any luck, he'll go longer than his under-6 IP average suggests, but the numbers aren't awful. At AT&T, his OPS is down below .600, which is great. Both Brandon Belt and Pablo Sandoval have more than 10 PA, but neither have fared that well. Fun fact: Madison Bumgarner is 1 for 1 with a homer off of Norris.
Matt Cain will make his first ever start against the Orioles. He's faced just J.J Hardy and Nate McLouth in any decent sample, with Hardy compiling an .857 OPS (includes 1 home run). Cain's home numbers are actually very similar to those of Bud Norris (when pitching at AT&T), albeit in a much larger sample. This could actually be a very compelling matchup.