Yankee fans everywhere are excited for the beginning of tonight’s big 4 game set with the hated Red Sox, and they should be. If the Yanks could manage a sweep of the Sox, they could send them reeling 6 1/2 games back with little hope of winning the AL East and fighting for their playoff lives with the Rays. However, should the Yanks get swept it would cement the notion that they simply can’t beat this team and would be a dark harbinger for the playoffs that the most ardent, die hard Yankee fan could not deny.
I’m not going to mince words here, the Yanks can and should take 3 of 4. Anything less would be disappointing. A split in these games would be a win for the Red Sox, given how the deck is stacked against them. As much as I’d love to use this series as a measuring stick for the Yanks/Red Sox, I really can’t. The Yankees are home with their rotation set up about as well as it possibly could be, while the Red Sox staff isn’t optimal and furthermore is banged up with the losses of Dice-K and Wakefield. There’s no more ‘we don’t have A-Rod’ excuse. No ‘Tex always slumps in April’ to fall back on. Joba’s throwing the ball extremely well and has dominated the Sox in previous outings. Burnett has been our best starter for the past few months. CC’s fine and Andy Pettitte is on one of his vintage 2nd half runs. The Yanks lead the majors in Runs Scored and have the best Home Record in the American League while the Sox are playing .500 ball away from Fenway Park. If the Yanks can’t take a series with these pitching matchups at home, you have to wonder if they ever will. I don’t think “We didn’t have Brett Gardner” will win you any arguments in Beantown on Monday. If anything, the Sox have a convenient excuse with Jason Bay likely to miss the series with an injured hamstring.
But then again, we’ve all seen teams get dominated in the regular season who go on to win in the playoffs. The 1988 Dodgers vs Mets come to mind. So much can change between now and October. Slumps, injuries, ineffectiveness by key contributors can change things dramatically between two evenly matched teams. Just plain luck will win you a game here and there, and while the Red Sox are a very good team the 0-8 record is a reflection of some good luck on their part. If these things tend to even out over time, the Yanks have a few wins they don’t deserve headed their way.
Quote of the day comes from Captain Clutch himself, who is far more renowned for his play on the field than he is for his quotes off it. He said:
However, Yankees captain Derek Jeter is quick to remind that regular-season success against a particular team isn’t necessarily an indicator of postseason outcomes. As he motioned toward pitcher CC Sabathia, who was sitting at the opposite end of the clubhouse, Jeter recalled the case of 2007. That year, the Yankees went 6-0 against Sabathia’s Indians in the regular season.
“I don’t think they beat us all year,” Jeter said. “Then we got to the playoffs.”
The Indians beat the Yankees 3-1 in the AL Division Series.
Game starts tonight @7:00 on MY9.
Related posts:
Jon Lester pitches Sunday aganst Pettitte. The way he’s throwing yesterday I’ll gladly take coming into Sunday’s game up 2-1 in the series.
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Steve S. Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 8:42 am
Damn, I thought he would pitch Monday when I figured this out last week. They must have skipped somebody or I made a mistake somewhere. Thanks for the update, I’ll edit the post.
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Moshe Mandel Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 9:35 am
Yeah, they flipped Penny and Lester against the Rays so Lester could pitch v. NY.
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Chofo Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 10:20 am
That’s why a split seems more reasonable, as you can expect tough games in the ones Beckett and Lester start. A sweep either way is very, very difficult, but i they manage to win 3 out of 4 it would be huge.
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Steve Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 6:13 pm
You expect to lose BOTH of those games? We have good pitchers going as well in Burnett and Pettitte.
I think you split those two, and have a big pitching edge in the other two. Yanks should take 3 of 4. Of course, its baseball and things often dont go as planned. They could sweep or get swept. But looking at the match ups, they should win the series, not split.
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First game sets the pace. Tonight’s game is critically important. Not saying that all 4 games are not of course…but tonight’s match-up favors us. Play this game like it’s a damn playoff game and get the confidence back against the Sox.
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Although I enjoy the Redsox games and get more out of a win against them as a fan. In reality I agree with the players and coaching staff that these games are not that important in the grand scheme of things.
How good a team is is measured over a season. For example, Joba could throw well tonight or he could throw poorly. If he throws a clunker it does not mean he can’t beat the sox. It just means that he didn’t happen to have his stuff for the one night. Why make more of it.
Converesly if we beat them and lose our next series… it stinks all the same.
That said, I really hope we take it to them. I’m sick of their fans and the BS.
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Tom Gaffney Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 11:16 am
I disagree to a certain extent, Jeff. I think the fact that the Sox juggled their rotation to get Lester a start in the series, while the Yanks moved Joba back conveniently tends to contradict that. Obviously the managers think these games are, if not all-important, certainly much bigger than a typical game. In terms of standings, they are worth about twice as much as a typical game because a win is also a guaranteed loss for the Sox. If the Yanks wind up missing the playoffs, these will be the games we’ll look back on with rue.
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Steve Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 6:14 pm
I agree, too much is made of these games and they’re no different than a Yankee win and Sox loss when both are playing other teams. But its fun to test yourself against the best, to see how you measure.
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Hey, don’t you dare discount the importance of Brett Gardner to this team, Steve. Don’t you realize that he’s both gritty AND gutty???!!!
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Steve Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Me? How dare you spell Gritt Gutner’s name ‘Brett Gardner’!
Blasphemy!
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I think this series is reminiscent of a couple of years ago when the yankees went into boston for 5 games in August up 1.5 in the standings and left with a 5 game sweep and 6.5 game lead. The Sox collapsed after that and finished 3rd in the AL East. A four game sweep for the Yankees would also leave the Sox 6.5 back and in a tight wild card race with Tampa. On the other hand a 4 game sweep the other way puts the Sox up 1.5 games and really creates a tight 3 team 2 spot race. The tone for the rest of the season will be set here so no matter what the manager or players say they know this is a big series. A split will leave the teams right where they were (with the exception of tampa who could tighten the 3 way race if they win 3 or 4 games over the span) and probably would be a victory for the Sox given the matchups and that the games are in NY. Any event, I’m looking forard to some good baseball.
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Acutally, Gardner will be missed big time against the RED Sox.He often allows us to make something out of nothing and we often have nothing when we play the Red Sox.
Frankly, I’m not optimistic that we do particularly well this weekend.
CC has been less then brilliant of late and the Sox have the edge in pitching, we could have used Gardners speed.
Additionally, AROD is back to pulling everything which is what he does when he usually goes bad in big spots.When he’s hitting it up the middle he can cover the entire plate but the way he’s swinging now, he runs the risk of being like Cano with men on base.
If we play like we did against the White sox why should we be overly optimistic we win more than 1, maybe 2 tops?
Hughes was throwing 90 last night, not 96 like he was a few weeks ago.
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Some day I may understand why some fans denigrate a player with the skills of Brett Gardner? The only thing he can’t do well is, hit with HR power. He and Melky (if they continue as is) make a very nice combination for the team, I had (have) my doubts of Melky but, as of now…both are good for this team.
Yes, Brett will be missed in these four games, he has the one thing the other players don’t…speed. How many times does one have to see it to believe the disruption speed makes with a pitcher and the defence?
With the pitching set-up as of now, I look for us to take 2 games, maybe 3. Three games is do-able in my book.
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Steve Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 6:17 pm
I’m a fan of Brett and want him on the team. I was just making the point that we don’t have any major injuries as an excuse this time around, unlike last time we faced the Sox.
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Old Ranger Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
True but, didn’t mean that for you or any one person. I do like the “No excuses this time”, caveat being…there never are “excuses”, just “adapt & improvise” (get the job done).
Bye the bye, good article Steve.
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Not sure how anyone can say the Yankees have any advantage going into this series when they’re 0-8 against the Red Sox this year. I’ll say it right now, here goes… If the Yankees just get one game out of 4 I won’t be overly upset. Sure, I’d like to see them win more, but gotta walk before you can run. They need to win one game just to get off the shnide. And if that’s all they get, the Sox will leave the Bronx still in 2nd place. I can think of worse things. The games that Beckett and Lester pitch, I give the Sox the advantage. Not big ones, but an advantage nonetheless. They’re just better pitchers at this point in the season than the guys they’re going up against. If we split, I’ll be very happy. 3 out of 4 jumping for joy. A sweep? Don’t want to have unrealistic expectations now. Hope for the best, prepare for the worst I always say. Let’s get 1 now!
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Yankee1010 Reply:
August 6th, 2009 at 2:52 pm
Wow. Pessimism brought to a new level.
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Well the offense is in overdrive against Smoltz and Traber which was to be expected but Chamberlain even though he has had decent velocity on his heater and some pretty decent bite to his slider has had absolutely no control and is probably not going back out for 6th after throwing over 100 pitches in 5 innings, however he is still on track to get his 8th win of the year and the way he handled himself in the 5th goes along way to the development of Joba as a starter IMO! He comes in after sitting for a half hour plus and throws 8 straight balls and walks the bases loaded and gets out of it by striking out the last outs and only giving up one run on a hit by Lowell with the bags juiced that wasn’t really hit all that hard. Now I’m not overjoyed by his performance but he did something all great starter do, he limited the damage against him in a start that he had less than his best stuff and showed a lot of moxie in actually finishing the inning after walking the bases loaded, most pitchers roll over and die there and don’t get out of the jam let alone with only one run scored against your rival.
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