The afternoon finale between the Indians and the Athletics starts shortly as Scott Kazmir takes on Tommy Milone.  It was supposed to be “battle of the comeback pitchers” today with former Indian Bartolo Colon on the mound, but he’s gone to the DL with a groin injury.  The Indians skipped Kazmir’s last start in order to give him some additional rest, opting to go with Carlos Carrasco instead.  Prior to the brief break, Kazmir only lasted three innings in his start against the Angels, giving up 5 ER on 6 hits, including a three-run home run from Josh Hamilton.  However, in three of his five starts prior to the skipped turn in the rotation, Kazmir allowed zero earned runs.  He faced Oakland one time earlier this year, allowing just 1 ER and 5 hits in 6 innings pitched; Oakland batters hit just .217 against him.  Kazmir has decent career numbers against Oakland – 10-5 with a 3.77 ERA and a 1.276 WHIP.

Milone actually had a brief stint in Triple-A recently; the A’s sent him there after he gave up 6 ER and 9 hits over just 3.2 innings against the Rangers on August 2.  While he didn’t walk anyone in that start, one of the reasons the A’s sent him to the minors was that he was having some command issues.  He did well while he was with Sacramento, so it will be interesting to see if he can bounce back today, or if he’ll regress after such a short stint in the minors.  Milone, who was traded to Oakland in the Gio Gonzalez deal, had a good year last year with the A’s.  He was the hard luck loser earlier this year in Cleveland (May 7) when he gave up 0 ER and 5 hits over 7 innings pitched.  The unearned run was all the Indians needed to beat the A’s 1-0, behind a solid start from Zach McAllister and scoreless bullpen innings from Rich Hill and Chris Perez.  Milone has faced the Indians two other times in his career, and is 1-1 with a 2.00 ERA against the Tribe.

And because I wrote this before Colon went to the DL, I had this whole bit on him prepared.  Since I don’t want it to go to waste, just pretend this next paragraph is what would happen if we lived in an alternate universe.

And Bartolo Colon – the former Indian has had quite a resurgence in Oakland.  His name actually turned up on the Biogenesis list, but since he was already suspended for 50 games for a positive test last season, he faces no further punishment.  This season Colon is 14-5 with a 2.97 ERA; however, he has had a couple of straight rough outings.  Against the Astros on August 13, he allowed 5 ER and 7 hits in just 4 innings pitched, and on August 7 against Cincinnati he allowed 5 ER and 7 hits and only lasted for 2.2 innings.  I guess we’ll see if those two games were a fluke, or if Colon is starting to run out of steam.  The Indians hit him hard earlier this year – the only time they saw him they got 6 ER and 8 hits in 4 innings pitched.  Indians batters hit .421 off of him during the game.  Over his career against the Indians, he’s 6-4 with a 3.84 ERA and a 1.183 WHIP.

Here are a couple of my favorite Colon-related links:

His disappointment over learning the bases are not marshmallows

A map of Colon’s colon 

Just some random fun Colon-related things

5 Comments

  • Adam Hintz says:

    Wait… I just realized that Raburn hit a HR off of a RHP — it goes beyond PEDs at this point, Ryan Raburn made a deal with the devil.

    • Adam Hintz says:

      wait, I just got up from a nap — I read Stephanie’s thing about Bartolo Colon and saw how we scored. Nevermind, I’m wrong and my brain is addled. Raburn is merely human, after all.

  • Gvl Steve says:

    People are expecting Kazmir to run out of gas because he hasn’t pitched this many innings in five years. I’ve learned not to bet against this guy, so I hope he can bounce back.

  • The Doctor says:

    the strike zone today has been… interesting.

  • The Doctor says:

    starting to think kazmir is just out of gas for the season. he probably needs to be shut down.