Great American Ball Park
Clayton Kershaw vs Johnny Cueto
Partly cloudy. Winds blowing out to left field at 5-15 m.p.h. Game time temperature around 85.
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Much nicer to win quietly than lose loudly. The Reds are getting on the smiling side of some close ones after going 0-5 in one-run games during the roadtrip. But the onslaught of top-shelf pitching continues. Cueto faced Jair Jurrjens, the league's lowest ERA and most likely to be the name of a Scandinavian shampoo brand, in his last start. Since then, the Reds have seen Shaun Marcum, Zack Greinke and now face a young pitcher who ranks ahead of Joey Votto in 2011 BBRef WAR and appears to be steadily improving at age 23.
I hesitate to say anything definitive about the pitching staff these days, but in this snapshot in time, Johnny Cueto would have to be your pick to match-up against any enemy's ace. He's only pitched 32.2 innings in 2011, but about the worst thing you can say is "Where are the Ks?" Without a full clinical work-up, I'm forced to admit I don't really know. But it is very curious that (unless this was a computer error) Cueto's velocity sat in the high-80s during his fourth start. I hope this is just an anomaly, because other than power pitching indicators, everything Cueto is doing has been trending in the right direction since the beginning of his big league career through today. Less earned runs, less base-runners, less home runs.
Trends, just keep on trendin'.