We’re back to a full panel of games on Tuesday evening after roughly half the league took Monday off. Tonight’s 8:15 PM EST game between the Cubs (Jason Hammel) and Cardinals (Jaime Garcia) is our highlight, not just because of some controversy over how the St. Louis crowd may or may not have treated ex-Cardinal and current Cub Jason Heyward, but because of the historic rivalry in general. Additionally, Garcia is coming off of a one-hit shutout against the Brewers, walking only one while striking out 13. It was overshadowed as Phillies starter Vincent Velasquez struck out 16 Padres on the same afternoon.
Garcia, 29, hasn’t made more than 20 starts in a season since 2011 as the lefty has battled injury after injury. He has started off the 2016 season strong and is hopefully behind the shoulder issues that have plagued him for years.
Hammel is no slouch. In two starts to begin the season, the right-hander has yielded just one run on eight hits and seven walks with nine strikeouts in 12 innings. While he’s probably not 0.75 ERA good, he’s a lot better than he’s given credit for being. Last season, Hammel set a new career-high with a 24.2 percent strikeout rate, and nearly matched his career-low walk rate of 5.5 percent.
The rest of Tuesday’s action…
Seattle Mariners (Wade Miley) @ Cleveland Indians (Carlos Carrasco), 6:10 PM EST
New York Mets (Logan Verrett) @ Philadelphia Phillies (Vince Velasquez), 7:05 PM EST
Oakland Athletics (Eric Surkamp) @ New York Yankees (Michael Pineda), 7:05 PM EST
Toronto Blue Jays (Marcus Stroman) @ Baltimore Orioles (Mike Wright), 7:05 PM EST
Colorado Rockies (Jorge De La Rosa) @ Cincinnati Reds (Robert Stephenson), 7:10 PM EST
Los Angeles Dodgers (Alex Wood) @ Atlanta Braves (Williams Perez), 7:10 PM EST
Tampa Bay Rays (Drew Smyly) @ Boston Red Sox (Joe Kelly), 7:10 PM EST
Washington Nationals (Stephen Strasburg) @ Miami Marlins (Adam Conley), 7:10 PM EST
Detroit Tigers (Shane Greene) @ Kansas City Royals (Yordano Ventura), 7:15 PM EST
Houston Astros (Scott Feldman) @ Texas Rangers (Derek Holland), 8:05 PM EST
Los Angeles Angels (Matt Shoemaker) @ Chicago White Sox (Mat Latos), 8:10 PM EST
Pittsburgh Pirates (Francisco Liriano) @ San Diego Padres (Colin Rea), 10:10 PM EST
Arizona Diamondbacks (Robbie Ray) @ San Francisco Giants (Matt Cain), 10:15 PM EST