Arroyo vs. Halladay. With apologies to Bronson, who's improved pretty dramatically over his last 3 starts, it's hard to find a bigger mismatch among regular starting pitchers. Halladay is #1 in starting pitcher fWAR in the majors among those that qualify, Arroyo is dead last. Halladay is 6th in ERA, Arroyo is 5th-to-last. Halladay is 6th in ERA+, Arroyo is 3rd-to-last. Halladay is even taller than the Arroyo, who is pretty tall himself. BUT. Arroyo has longer hair, his nickname is "Saturn Nuts" (compared to "Doc," which is very boring) and he pitched 8 scoreless innings in his last outing. That's basically a wash.
Perfect game notwithstanding, the Reds have their toughest draw out of the way in Cole Hamels. Time to cruise to a series win.
Lineup after the jump. [I guess they're picking their spots for Alonso at 3B, but after not getting a single defensive opportunity last night, why not run him back out there against the toughest righty around? The beauty of Alonso at 3B is that he bats lefty.]
LINEUP:
Brandon Phillips 2B
Edgar Renteria SS
Joey Votto 1B
Jay Bruce RF
Miguel Cairo 3B
Drew Stubbs CF
Fred Lewis LF
Ryan Hanigan C
Bronson Arroyo RHP
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