Brett Cecil’s recent interleague play revealed an interesting trend.  Unlike other AL pitchers who excel against the Senior Circuit, Cecil withered and had 3 of his worst outings of the year.  The Padres, Phillies and Cardinals touched him up for 16 earned runs over 15.2 innings causing his ERA to spike from 3.22 to 4.39.

After interleague play was done, Cecil had the challenging task of facing the Twins and Yankees and promptly held both to 4 hits and 1 earned run each.  He did walk 6 batters against New York, but worked his way out of trouble with 5 K’s.

Compared to last year’s line, Cecil has dramatically improved his numbers over his first 93 IP.  Every statistical category is considerably better, most notably allowing 8 less HRs and a 1.16 WHIP opposed to a 1.65 WHIP in 2009.

I’m willing to chalk up the horrendous interleague play as an anomaly, but I’m a little more concerned about the half a dozen walks given up to the Yanks.  All in all, I’m going to reacquire his services and see if he kicks off the second half with a quality start against Kansas City.