I swear that at least once a year I come across Jerome Williams’ name in a box score or he pitches against the Pirates and I have to do a double-take and ask myself, “Wait, THAT Jerome Williams? He’s still pitching in Major League Baseball?” The answer is always, “Yes. That Jerome Williams. He’s still pitching in Major League Baseball.”
This year, Jerome Williams started as a reliever with the Astros, washed out, moved on to the Rangers, made two starts that were even worse than his relief appearances with Houston, and ended up on the Phillies (this is an accurate representation of the general state the Phillies are in right now). Anyway, Williams’ numbers look kind of OK this year if the site listing them only uses his National League numbers (he’s 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA with the Phillies), but his full-season ERA is 6.71, his FIP with the the Phillies is 4.04, and his full-season FIP is 4.32. He’s not having a very good year, though I guess he has looked on in red and white, even if his peripherals are not great.
This is an odd bit of miscellany, but the Pirates haven’t managed to follow a loss that followed a win with a win (that is, stop a losing streak at one game before it becomes a losing streak) since July 21st. This would be an ideal night to put an end to that odd pattern. Vance Worley starts for the Pirates tonight. I guess the best way to describe him lately is “uneven.” He’s had some good starts, some really rough ones, and he’s combined good starts and rough starts all into one frustrating start more than once. He looked pretty OK and struck a bunch of Cubs out in his last start, but the Cubs are essentially a wind energy plant right now. Seeing him on the mound makes me nervous right now, to be honest, but I don think he’s probably good enough to at least keep the Pirates in the game against Jerome Williams.
First pitch tonight is at 7:10.
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