3 Picks: Dice-K in the Day of the Day/Night

Saturday, May 19: Anthony Lerew (0-1)(ATL) vs. Daisuke Matsuzaka (5-2)(BOS)

Lerew has only one start in his big league career. And for start #2 he faces the Dice-K. Unless the Braves regain their sanity and swap him out for John Smoltz in this first game of a day/night double-header. That way Lerew could square up against Devern Hansack - another rookie with just two big league starts under his belt.(Win Probability graphing by Fangraphs)
Anthony Lerew: 2.0IP, 5H, 3R, 3ER, 2BB, 0SO, 2HR - L

Daisuke Matsuzaka: 8.0IP, 9H, 3R, 3ER, 0BB, 6SO, 1HR - W

As expected, Matsuzaka wins easily over Lerew (who only recorded 6-outs total, forcing the Braves to use 6 pitchers in the first game of the double-header) while Smoltz won the night-cap. I'm disappointed that these teams decided to go with such mis-matches for both games.

Sunday, May 20: Jose Contreras (3-4)(CHW) vs. Carlos Zambrano (4-3)(CHC)

I would pay to see these two face each other. Not to mention seeing the colorful personalities of managers Ozzie Guillen and Lou Pinella crossing paths in the windy city for the first time. Lou Pinella is the reason why I love baseball.
(Win Probability graphing by Fangraphs)
Nick Masset: 5.2IP, 3H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 3SO, 0HR - W
Mike MacDougal: 0.1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0SO, 0HR - H

Carlos Zambrano: 6.2IP, 6H, 7R, 7ER, 4BB, 5SO, 1HR - L

Nick Masset makes an emergency start instead of Jose Contreras (who only had three days rest) and comes up big to salvage the third game of the series for the White Sox. Sorry Lou, but the Southsiders rule.

Monday, May 21: Aaron Cook (3-1)(COL) vs. Brandon Webb (3-3)(ARI)

This is a good pairing. And it should be low scoring too.(Win Probability graphing by Fangraphs)
Aaron Cook: 6.0IP, 6H, 4R, 4ER, 1BB, 2SO, 2HR - ND
Jorge Julio: 0.0IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 1BB, 0SO, 1HR - BS
Jeremy Affeldt: 2.0IP, 1H, 1R, 1ER, 2BB, 1SO, 0HR - L

Brandon Webb: 7.0IP, 8H, 5R, 5ER, 4BB, 7SO, 1HR - ND
Doug Slaten: 1.0IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 2SO, 0HR - W
Jose Valverde: 1.0IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0HR - SV

So much for a low scoring game. It looks like Jorge Julio wasted no time blowing saves for Colorado the way he has been doing it for Florida this year. And he even did it against the team that traded him to Florida in the first place.