On Deck: The Clayton Rules

On Deck is FanHouse's look at the day's most intriguing baseball matchups.

St. Louis Cardinals (30-21) at Los Angeles Dodgers (25-23) - 4:10 PM ET

Yeah, so I gave this matchup top billing for the second day in a row, which exposes a severe lack of imagination on my part. For that, I apologize. But really, you should watch this game if you want to check out Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw making his major league debut. Kershaw is such a prized prospect for the Dodgers, that they put out a decree to keep him under 25 innings a month at AA Jacksonville to prepare him for a pennant run in L.A. And he's been great down on the farm so far, putting up a 2.34 ERA and a 1.11 WHIP while averaging over a strikeout an inning. And in his 42 and 1/3 innings of work in AA, he has given up a grand total of zero home runs. For a Dodger rotation which has been slogging along lately (Derek Lowe has one quality start since April 12th, and Brad Penny's last quality start was April 26th), this team could use Kershaw to become the next big thing.

Boston Red Sox (31-21) at Oakland Athletics (26-24) - 4:05 PM ET

The current big thing in Boston is, of course, Jon Lester. When last we saw Lester, he was toeing the rubber at Fenway Park pitching the first no-hitter of the season against Kansas City. Today he goes against Oakland with hopes of becoming the next Johnny Vander Meer (Vander Meer, for the uninitiated, is the only pitcher to pitch no-hitters in consecutive starts.) Good luck with that, Mr. Lester. But in the likely case that it doesn't happen, you could always come back here and check out the culmination of Lester's gem.

P.S. Justin Duchscherer's 6 and 1/3's innings of no -hit ball against the Red Sox last night got us wondering so we checked it: Twice has a team thrown a no-hitter, and then had a no-hitter spun against them within a span of five days ... and both times it happened in consecutive days. Gaylord Perry of the Giants and Ray Washburn of the Cardinals each threw a no-hitter against the other on September 17th and 18th, 1968. One season later, Jim Maloney of the Reds threw a no-hitter against Houston on April 30th. The next day, Houston's Don Wilson turned the trick on the Reds. It was the second no-hitter each for Maloney and Wilson.

There, now go win a bet in a bar and tell 'em FanHouse sent you. (But if the guy you bet is so drunk that he beats the snot out of you for taking his beer money, we aren't going to admit we know you.)

Baltimore Orioles (24-24) at Tampa Bay Rays (29-20) - 1:40 PM ET

Daniel Cabrera has seemingly found his way this season, and he's a big reason why the Orioles are still playing .500 ball. Forgive my obsession with the quality start today, but every outing Cabrera has had since April 12th has fit the definition of "quality". More importantly, his walk rate is down to 3.21 BB/9 ... which would easily be the lowest of his career. Cabrera is going to have to play stopper for the birds as his last start on May 20th against the Yankees was their last win. And he'll have to cool off a Rays team that put up 11 runs last night which included two dingers by Evan Longoria.

Everyone Else:

Rangers at Indians 1:05 ET
Twins at Tigers 1:05 ET
Mariners at Yankees 1:05 ET
Royals at Blue Jays 1:07 ET
Giants at Marlins 1:10 ET
Diamondbacks at Braves 1:35 ET
Cubs at Pirates 1:35 ET
Brewers at Nationals 1:35 ET
Phillies at Astros 2:05 ET
Mets at Rockies 3:05 ET
Reds at Padres 4:05 ET
Angels at White Sox 8:05 ET