Game 96: Yankees (Cole) at Orioles (Lyles)

Scouting report on Lyles from reddit:

After a win that felt like a loss, the yanks may have a Chance to hit their heart out tonight when they face Journeyman Jordan Lyles. The Righty own a 4.76 ERA in 107.2 IP this year.

Some nuggets about the man:

He throws roughly 50% fast balls against both rigthies and lefties. Against righties thats an even split between his 4sm and Sinker. Against lefties its almost only the 4sm. Against Righties he will throw 40% Slider as well. So the righties will either see the 4sm/sinker or the slider. Lefties will see almost no sliders but changeups and Curveballs instead. All of his stuff has below average velocity and movement.

His pitches are "bad bad" according to the Baseball savant grading. Both the changeup and 4sm Fastball are way below league average. Only his sinker is very slighty above league average. But comparing it to the last 2 years they are actually better, which in itself is kind of amazing.
Lyles has played for 8 Teams in his 10 Years of service time. He owns a 5.17 Career ERA. He has been bad the last 2 Years with the Rangers. To be honest i think the orioles picked this guy up because he can go pretty deep into games and was cheap.

His lefty rigthy splits are also bad. He has an allowed OPS of .715 against righties, which would be acceptable if his splits against lefties was the same or better. However, his allowed OPS against Lefties is .912 with a .262 OBP and .550 SLG. I expect all lefties to start and some Power from them. His xFIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) is lower than his ERA at 4.35. So Lyles may have had some bad defense behind him. But 4.35 would still be bad.

The bad lefty split is fueled by him walking almost double the amount of lefties than rigthies. And lefties have 207 PA, compared to 267 PA from rigthies. So the only thing standing in between the lefties and hitting em out tonight is lyles missing the zone.
Lyles has only 1 Game where he hasnt allowed a run, that was a 5 IP outing back in April against the A's. He had a couple of good outings recently but then gave up 6ER in 2.2 IP against the Rays to end that streak.

I rarely write bad breakdowns, but lyles really didnt leave me any choice. He allows BA, Power, Walks and doesnt strike a lot of people out. With that said i expect nothing less tha 8 shutout, maybe even no hit innings, as thats just my kind of luck.

The King is dead! Long live the King!