MLB Games Of The Day For Thursday, Aug. 25
The best matchups of the day, all in one place
Matthew Horner - Aug 25, 2022, 11:47am EDTAn interesting matchup awaits us mid-afternoon on Thursday between the Los Angeles Angels and Tampa Bay Rays. While the Angels are dead in the water without a paddle this season, despite having two of the biggest superstars in the game, the Rays still have a shot at making the playoffs as a wild card. You can bet that their mindset for the rest of the season will be super-focused in getting a win each and every game, as they know how crucial every contest will be for their chances of making it back to the World Series.
On the other side of the ball, I feel really bad for Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. These are two of the brightest stars in baseball, carrying their team night in and out, and yet they always are stuck with a losing record and no playoff appearances. Trout may go down as one of the greatest players of all time, but no one gets to see him play because he's on the west coast with a losing organization. Ohtani is the first modern MLB player who can both hit and pitch, and do them both very well.
We have a pretty good pitching battle between Patrick Sandoval and Drew Rasmussen, but I give Rasmussen the edge here. He's been great this season, with a 2.82 ERA and 1.05 WHIP. What is even better is his home ERA, which is sitting at a sparkling 1.99. Sandoval has been good, with a 3.14 ERA, but his WHIP is pretty high at 1.40. That tells us that he has been a little bit lucky to have an ERA that low.
I'll be honest, this small slate on Thursday doesn't feature many good matchups besides the good pitching outing above. Still, if there is any other game I would tune into today, it would be the Colorado Rockies vs. New York Mets contest. Why would I tune into a game that should be an easy win for New York? One reason, and his name is Jacob deGrom. Watching once in a generation type of pitching is, well, very rare to see and I don't want to miss a minute of deGrom's excellence on the mound. He's so good that when he was in the minor leagues for a rehab start, the opposing team tweeted something along the lines of "Pray for us" after seeing he was starting.
deGrom has been his normal dominant self this season. He's 2-1 this year with a 2.31 ERA and an insane 0.51 WHIP since making his return to the rotation. The only thing that has been an issue with him is the fact that he just gets injured so much and misses a lot of starts. When he does pitch though, it is something that you should take advantage of. Not only by watching greatness in front of you, but also by betting on the Mets.
