Delicious Cliff Bar

Well, yesterday was about as harrowing a journey through a 2-2 night that I can remember. Tampa went up 5-2, then blew the lead to spoil the Run Line. The Giants fell behind by 4 runs, came back to tie it, then in extras scored 3 times to cash the Run Line. Kansas City fell behind Chicago 4-1, cut it to 4-3, and in the 5th (the last inning of our wager), scored twice to take a 5-4 lead. In the bottom half, the White Sox put runners on the corners with nobody out, and had a player thrown out at home trying to tag up. Finally, Texas jumped out to an early 5-run lead, then watched as Minny outscored them 9-1 the rest of the way. Sheesh!

For today, there are 2 afternoon games, so if we're making a play on those, we'll try to get it posted soon. Otherwise, everything will go normally. Some feedback, please: did folks like how I grouped the best player-matchups by team yesterday, or did that just make things more confusing? Oh, and I'm just going to continue to make all this introductory text a link to the Pregame.com thread, for my own benefit, of course.

NL
Cliff Lee - Everything this guy touches turns to gold, lately, so it's tough to see him giving up more than a run or two to the Dbacks, who struggle mightily on the road.
Dan Haren - Haren held the Phils to a team BA of .190 earlier this year, but got burned by a Shane Victorino home run. If he keeps home runs solo, this game looks like a 2-2 tie heading into extras.
Nyjer Morgan - Morgan is a very reasonable 4-for-11 off Jason Marquis, but his teammates have done ZIP!
Jason Marquis - It looks like the Jewish pitcher with the French name is getting back into form, throwing 7 outstanding innings against the Pirates his last time out. Against the Nats, Marquis is 1-0 this year, going 8 shutout frames. A real key is that Adam Dunn is batting .179 against him in 28 AB.
Yovani Gallardo - Gallardo has held the Buckos to a team BAA of .164 this year, giving up just 3 runs in 15 innings, while compiling a 1-0 record.
Ryan Braun - Braun is 4-for-5 off Maholm this season, to raise his lifetime numbers to .368 in 19AB with a homer and 7 driven in.
Mike Cameron - Cameron is an even more impressive .423 hitter off Maholm with 3 homers and 9 RBI.
Jair Jurrjens - A fine start against the Phils went to waste because of a lack of run support, but more importantly, his poor efforts against the Dodgers are now behind him. Jurrjens faces a Mets team that is batting just .196 against him, and now they don't even have David Wright.
Kinda, sorta, San Fran - There are a handful of Giants that have had MILD success of Arroyo, but none that has just pasted him...the closest we got is Freddy Lewis, who is 4-for-11.
Adrian Gonzalez - Only 5 AB career against Rich Harden, but he's 4-for-5 with a homer and 2 RBI.
Albert Pujols and Matt Holliday - The Cards centerpieces are a combined 8-for-16 off Kershaw, but have just 1 RBI between them.
Rafael Furcal and Russ Martin - The Dodgers hit Wainwright relatively well, in general, but as is the case every time they're in St. Louis, they can't get anybody home. Furcal is 2-for-4 off Wainwright this year, and 7-for-13 overall, while Martin is 2-for-3 against him this season, and a blistering 7-for-11 lifetime.

AL
Scott Podsednik - Podsednik is a remarkable 16-for-30 in his career against Zack Greinke, including 7-for-10 this year.
A.J. Pierzynski - It's really a wonder that Greinke has an ERA of 1.61 against the Sox, since Pierzynski also hits him hard. A.J. is 6-for-11 off him this year, and is a .432 batter lifetime in 37 AB.
Jermaine Dye - How about one more White Sox position player, Jermaine is hitting .390 off Greinke in 41 trips, including 3 homers.
Robb Quinlan - He probably won't get in the starting lineup, but in the event he does, Quinlan is 6-for-12 off Jeremy Sowers.
Jhonny Peralta - J-honny is batting a cool .357 off Jered Weaver, with a homer and 4 RBI.
Grady Sizemore - He didn't face Weaver earlier this year (though Weaver still gave up 4 runs in 5 innings), but Sizemore is batting over .300 against him with a pair of homers.
Shin-Soo Choo - .357 average in 17 AB against Weaver, but no power numbers.
Franklin Gutierrez, Ichiro, and Jose Lopez - I lumped these three Mariners together because of the similarity of their numbers off Verlander. Gutierrez is 6-for-20, Lopez is 8-for-25, and Ichiro is 9-for-26.
Placido Polanco - Somehow, he's faced Ian Snell 10 times, and has collected hits in 5 of those trips.
J.D. Drew and Kevin Youkilis - Both hitting in the low/mid 300's off Roy Halladay, but that's about it for Boston.
Nick Markakis - Not only is this guy just locked in right now, he's 4-for-9 off Jeff Niemann.
The Twinkies - Really, if I were going to pick a game for the Twins to steal in Texas, it would have been today's, not yesterday, but so it goes. Offensively, Orlando Cabrera (.366 in 41AB), Michael Cuddyer (8-for-18, HR, 3RBI), Brendan Harris (4-for-8), Jason Kubel (4-for-10), Joe Mauer (.360 in 20AB), Justin Morneau (6-for-16, 3HR, 10RBI), Nick Punto (.412 in 17AB), and Delmon Young (3-for-6) have all crushed Kevin Millwood, who, in 10 starts against the Twins in his career, is 0-7.
Melky Cabrera - The Yankees have defeated young Brett Anderson twice already this year, thanks in part to Melky's 4-for-5 numbers in those games, which includes a homer.