Rubber Match in Toronto - Lilly Returns to Face Jesse Litsch

The Cubs evened up the series with a nice win behind Jason Marquis. More on that in another post. Also coming up later, a summary of the Jay's pen. This one's about Jesse Litsch, who will face the Cubs in Sunday's series finale. But first, a note on the Cub's Sunday starter.

Going for the Cubs will be ex-Jay Ted Lilly. Lilly went 37-34 between 2004 and 2006 for Toronto, and made his only All-Star Game appearance during his first season in Ontario.

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We'll see Lilly and Jesse Litsch go at it tomorrow. Here's a look at the Toronto righty, who, while having a very good season, has struggled lately.

cfx	#	L	R	mph	pfx_x	pfx_z	deg	rpm	B:CS	corner%	Sw%	Whiff%	SwOOZ%	TaISZ%	HR%	NKS
CH	186	148	38	81.4	-6.0	2.8	231	791	3.0	8.60	41.40	25.97	26.40	22.08	0.5	0.538
CU	379	193	186	78.6	5.9	-2.7	221	760	3.3	11.08	50.40	23.56	35.83	18.78	0.5	0.410
F2	114	84	30	89.3	-8.1	4.8	237	1,185	7.1	13.16	35.96	17.07	25.58	20.93	0.9	0.400
F4	182	112	70	90.6	-5.2	7.4	215	1,163	3.0	13.74	42.31	3.90	25.89	23.16	0.0	0.324
FC	339	183	156	87.3	0.3	5.4	177	689	1.8	15.93	43.07	13.70	25.41	26.44	0.6	0.371
SL	541	292	249	85.1	2.1	2.8	148	460	1.1	15.90	49.35	13.86	33.46	26.20	1.3	0.512
	1741	1012	729	84.6	0.3	2.7	191	726	2.1	13.67	45.89	16.52	30.20	23.98	0.7	0.441

cfx	X+HR	GO	AO
CH	39	19	9
CU	99	45	21
F2	19	8	5
F4	33	13	11
FC	69	27	21
SL	126	47	41
	385	159	108

Litsch looks solid, but not spectacular. The ground-ball rates are impressive, and he looks to have good command of each pitch. The two-seamer doesn't do its job all that well - the high B:CS ratio combined with a low whiff and swooz doesn't bode well, and the ground-ball rate isn't all that great, considering the movement he's getting on it. I'd say the curve and the cutter are his best pitches.