This season in 9 head to head match ups, Jersey held the edge 6-3. Jersey went 4-2 at home, and 2-1 on the road. 6 of those games were before the All Star break, and if you watched the BSA this season you know Vista was a different animal after the break. Vista's hails from Southern California and plays in a home park opposite of Jersey Shore's. It is very pitcher friendly and in general it is death to right handed hitters with the left field foul pole sitting 382 feet from home plate featuring a 10 foot wall.
Let's break down the teams:
Offensively:
As you can see Jersey holds a distrinct offensive advantage. Dominating every category, especially in runs. Jersey on the season scored 5.92 runs per game, while only 4.28 for Vista. This of course has to do with how different their home parks are as well as the offensively friendly parks in the CL East compared to the CL West, but also do to how the teams are built, Vista is primarily built on pitching.
Pitching:
Vista holds a distinct advantage in team ERA and starter's ERA. A main to watch in this series will be how the Vista starters handle Jersey's big bats. If they can limit damage from the 3-4-5 spots in the order, they will definitely give themselves a chance in this series. If Vista is to win the series, I foresee them winning low scoring close games. It will be tough for them to win a slug fest with the Bags.
The Starters vs. Vista:
Art Ellis: 0-1, 0.00 ERA, 8.2 IP, 6HA, 0ER, 1BB, 6K
Jose Ramos: 1-0, 0.00 ERA, 7.1IP, 6HA, 0ER, 4BB, 4K
Dan Macias: 1-0, 6.00 ERA, 6.0IP, 8HA, 4ER, 1BB, 5K
Rob Goodship: 0-2, 4.09 ERA, 11.0IP, 14HA, 5ER, 5BB, 9K
Jerry Burgess: 2-0, 0.63ERA, 6HA, 1ER, 8BB, 6K
Lineups:
Jersey plans to run with the usual lineups, which are as follows:
vs RHP:
1. LF Peter Larson
2. SS Lawrence Schroeder
3. 2B Mike Bryant
4. DH Matt Doyle
5. RF Dave Dodd
6. 1B Alberto Perez
7. C Luis Antonio Duran
8. CF Fransisco Torres
9. 3B Adam Morrow
vs LHP:
1. CF Sergio Rodriguez
2. SS Lawrence Schroeder
3. 2B Mike Bryant
4. 1B Matt Doyle
5. RF Dave Dodd
6. DH Manny Romero
7. C Warren Goyer
8. 3B Alberto Perez
9. LF Tim Duncan
Hitters against probable Vista starters:
vs. Hoffmeyer
Bryant 6/14 2HR .429
Perez 3/8 .375
Morrow 3/11 .273
Doyle 2/8 1HR .250
Duran: 2/11 .182
Larson 1/9 .111
Torres 0/4 .000
Schroeder 0/3 .000
Dodd 0/3 .000
vs. Montanez
Torres 2/4 .500
Schroeder 1/3 .333
Bryant 7/23 2HR 304
Larson 7/25 .280
Romero 3/11 .273
Doyle 5/19 1HR .263
Perez 2/9 .222
Duran 4/19 1HR .211
Morrow 1/6 .167
Dodd 0/4 .000
vs Law
Schroeder 1/2 .500
Taylor 3/7 1HR .429
Romero 2/6 .333
Dodd 1/3 .333
Doyle 2/8 1HR .250
Bryant 2/9 1HR .222
Duran 1/5 .200
Perez 1/5 .200
Rodriguez 0/7 .000
Larson 0/6 .000
Goyer 0/3 .000
Morrow 0/3 .000
Not many AB for most of the Jersey players against the Big 3 of Vista, but not a whole lot of success for Jersey hitters. One thing to note is both Bryant and Doyle have homered off of each starter in their career. Does this mean anything? Probably not. But it's baseball, we break stuff down, it's what we do.
There will be more on this series and much more playoff talk as the week progresses!
GO D-BAGS