Kenta Maeda looks to pull a Tanaka

Phil Gurnee ♦ April 28, 2017 ♦ Leave a comment

To put it mildly, Kenta Maeda has been a huge disappointment so far in 2017.

Date                Opp  Rslt   IP  H ER BB SO HR Game Score
Apr4                SDP  L0-4  5.0  6  3  2  4  1  45
Apr9                COL W10-6  5.0  5  4  1  5  1  45
Apr15               ARI  W8-4  4.0  4  4  1  5  1  42
Apr22               ARI L5-11  5.0  9  6  1  5  4  29
Apr 4 to Apr 22 2017      2-2 19.0 24 17  5 19  7  40

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/28/2017.

He may be pitching for his spot in the rotation. Looking for some hope I turned toward his countrymate, Masahiro Tanaka. Tanaka also started off April with a string of poor starts but as you can tell from the game logs below, Tanaka has gotten better with each start and threw a shutout against the Red Sox last night, outdueling Chris Sale.

I’m not dreaming of a shutout for Kenta, but maybe he can do the Kenta and give the Dodgers 5 2/3 of two-run ball ?

Date                    Tm Opp Rslt   IP  H ER BB SO HR Game Score
Apr2                   NYY TBR L3-7  2.2  8  7  2  3  2  15
Apr8                   NYY BAL L4-5  5.0  6  3  4  5  0  44
Apr14                  NYY STL W4-3  6.1  5  3  2  5  1  54
Apr19                  NYY CHW W9-1  7.0  6  1  2  6  0  65
Apr27                  NYY BOS W3-0  9.0  3  0  0  3  0  84
Apr 2 to Apr 27 2017       NYY  3-2 30.0 28 14 10 22  3  52

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 4/28/2017.

Look for Gandal to have a big game. According to stats he has the highest OPS against the Phillies

Yasmani Grandal, LAD            1.172 (.442 OBP + .730 SLG)

Justin Turner was able to turn an extra inning affair into a plus by collecting a hit to keep his hitting streak alive it is now at 13. Both Turner and Gonzalez are searching for their first home run in April.