Blue Jays and Rockies meet in Tulowitzki’s homecoming: Full series preview

Game 3:  Wednesday, June 29th  –  3:10 p.m. ET

Aaron Sanchez (7-1, 3.33 ERA)  vs.
Tyler Anderson (0-1, 2.55 ERA)

Rookie left-hander Tyler Anderson has been a pleasant surprise for the Rockies, looking strong in all three of his starts. The 2011 first round pick took a slower road than most to the major leagues, but at this point, he’s more than enough for the Rockies.

The key to Anderson’s success thus far has been forcing ground balls at a rate of 62%, something he’ll hope to do against the powerful Blue Jays bats at Coors Field. His last time out against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Anderson did allow eight hits over five and two-thirds innings, but he limited the damage to just a pair of runs by striking out eight. Across his 17.2 MLB innings so far, he’s fanned 18.

Anderson tops out around 91 MPH with his fastball but has mixed his pitches very evenly so far. His fastball, changeup, and slider usage all sit above 30%, so especially given that he’s a fresh face to the Jays hitters, this could prove to be a difficult one-off matchup (especially the first time or two through the order).

Next: Weekly AL East Recap: Jays struggle, but it's not all bad

Sanchez counters for the Blue Jays and is approaching the mid-season mark with just a single loss to his name. His ground ball rate has remained excellent at 58.1% and he’s already earned an impressive 2.0 fWAR.

The young right-hander has kept his velocity strong and shown no signs of slowing down as talks of his workload limit grow louder. He’s gone six innings with two runs earned in both of his last two starts, and his pitching style should fit ideally in the confines of Coors. Consider this the leading candidate for best pitching matchup of the series.