St. Louis Cardinals’ Lance Lynn Not Afraid of Los Angeles Dodgers
Lance Lynn has quietly been one of the better pitchers on the St. Louis’ Cardinals roster since he became a starter. The other day I posted an article talking about how the Cardinals get to Clayton Kershaw and shouldn’t be as afraid as the media says they should [click here for link] . Today we will discuss the second starters of this series, Lance Lynn, and Zack Greinke.
Both of these two starters have had excellent careers so far. The main difference is Greinke has been proven over the past decade, while Lynn has only three years as a starter under his belt.
Our Tale of the Tape:
In the blue corner, former Cy Young award winner, Zack Greinke! – Since 2011 Greinke is 6-2 against the Cardinals in the regular season in eight starts. He’s recorded 44 strikeouts but has allowed nearly a hit per inning, allowing 51 hits in 52 innings pitched. Despite that, he finds a way out of jams and has avoided any major blow-up innings.
Now what about his postseason numbers against the Cardinals? In four career starts against the Cardinals in the postseason he holds a 2-1 record in four starts, while posting a 4.10 ERA over the 26.1 innings he has pitched. Oddly, in his worst outing, he allowed six runs over six innings and won. In the other game, he allowed two runs in each start.
In the Red Corner, the challenger, Lance Lynn! – Since coming into the league in 2011 Lynn has gone 3-1 in five games started against the Dodgers, allowing 29 hits over 26 innings and striking out 32 batters. He allowed 13 runs as well, most of which were given up this season, where he gave up eight in his two starts. So basically cut Greinke’s wins and losses in half and say both of these men have done well in the regular season starts against each other.
Now for Lynn’s postseason numbers. Against the Dodgers Lynn was 2-0 in two games (one as a starter, one as a reliever) last season when the Cardinals beat the Dodgers. In his winning start he pitched 5.1 innings, allowing six hits and two runs. Overall last postseason he pitched 7.1 innings against the Dodgers, allowing seven hits and just the two previously mentioned runs.
So in Game 1 and potentially Game 5 you have two aces who struggle against each other’s team. And in game two you have two pitchers who do very well against each other. This series will be as interesting as last season when these two teams faced off. Yet despite these dominant pitchers including Adam Wainwright, Kershaw, Greinke, and Lynn, the most interesting game may be Hyun-Jin Ryu against John Lackey in game three. Do yourselves a favor and make sure you schedule your week around this series. It is going to be electric.