Globe iconLogin iconRecap iconSearch iconTickets icon

Today's MLB.TV slate features host of 20-game winners

Six hurlers of exclusive club scheduled to work in final tuneups of spring

Only a select few pitchers can boast of a 20-win season at the Major League level, and four of those aces will square off in two separate pitchers' duels today -- one on each Florida coast.

In fact, MLB.TV will feature six 20-game winners across four different games as some of baseball's best hurlers will make their final tuneups before the regular season begins.

Detroit's Justin Verlander will face Philaelphia's Cliff Lee in Clearwater at 1:05 p.m. ET. Across the state in Jupiter, St. Louis' Adam Wainwright opposes Washington's Gio Gonzalez.

Verlander will be looking for a Grapefruit League shutout, as he hasn't allowed a single run in 13 2/3 Spring Training innings this year.

The Tigers will send most of their offensive starters on the trip, and they will face a stiff test in Lee, who has started five games this spring and posted a 2.75 ERA and a 0.86 WHIP.

Wainwright will start the Cardinals' opener next Monday in Cincinnati, but first he'll get another crack at Washington. In his last outing, Wainwright shut out the Nats over eight innings, lowering his spring ERA to 2.04 and his WHIP to 0.79.

Gonzalez slots in behind Opening Day starter Stephen Strasburg in the Nats' rotation, but that doesn't make today's duel any less appetizing. In four spring starts, Gonzalez has a 2.70 ERA. Meanwhile, Craig Stammen, Aaron Barrett, Ross Detwiler and Xavier Cedeno will be available for Washington in the later innings.

R.A. Dickey, a 20-game winner in 2012, earned the Opening Day nod for the Blue Jays, and he'll face the Yankees on MLB.TV, also at 1:05 p.m. ET. In each of his last two outings, Dickey has thrown 100 pitches, but he'll take things a little easier this afternoon in order to save his arm for the regular-season opener.

Aaron Loup, Steve Delabar and Jeremy Jeffress also are expected to pitch for Toronto, while Chris Leroux gets the ball for New York.

In the fourth and final 1:05 game on MLB.TV, the Pirates will look to build on Tuesday's 22-run outburst. Edinson Volquez was originally slated to make the start, but he will pitch a two-inning simulated game instead, while Brandon Cumpton starts against Minnesota. Ricky Nolasco gets the nod for the Twins, his final start of a rough spring that has seen him allow 11 runs on 19 hits in 14 innings.

The lone Cactus League game on the MLB.TV docket features Cincinnati's Joey Votto returning to the starting lineup after an off-day Tuesday. He'll face White Sox lefty John Danks, while Brett Marshall gets the nod for the Reds at 4:05 p.m. ET.

And, fittingly, the MLB.TV nightcap features another battle of Opening Day starters. Tampa Bay's David Price, who won 20 games in 2012, gets the ball opposite Baltimore's Chris Tillman in an American League East showdown at 7:05 p.m. ET.

The next time Price and Tillman -- and Wainwright, Lee, Dickey and Verlander, as well -- step onto a ballpark mound for a game, they will be getting the 2014 baseball season underway for their respective clubs.

AJ Cassavell is a reporter for MLB.com. Follow him on Twitter @ajcassavell.