Not to sound too pessimistic, but it's a very good thing the Sox beat the Yankees in the sole pitching matchup of the series that favors Boston. Wakefield vs. Wang is a bit of a toss-up tonight, but I can just see a classic Wakefield vs. New York performance of 4 innings and 6 earned runs. Then Penny vs. Sabathia tomorrow night is an obvious mismatch.
Josh Beckett is on a killer hot streak. To Lou Merloni and the other idiots who're clamoring for a 6 man rotation, do you really want to mess with a guy pitching this well just so Brad Penny can get a few extra innings in before he's traded? 1 earned run allowed in Beckett's last 31 innings. That's a 0.29 ERA folks. 7 Quality Starts in a row, and he's 5-0 since the start of May.
David Ortiz was 1 for 4 with a homerun. Once again, I'm going to be annoyingly pessimistic. Ortiz's homer came off a pitcher having a lousy night. 5 hits, 5 walks for AJ Burnett in 2.2 innings. And as good as it was to see him hit a 450 footer to dead center, to me, that still means he's being late on the ball.
When David Ortiz is on his A Game, the homeruns are bombs over the Monster, and screeching line drives over the bullpen in right. I'm not criticizing him for hitting a homerun, but let's not get all excited about him hitting the ball straight instead of pulling it.
That being said, Ortiz is still a Yankee killer. He's hitting .304 against them with a .988 OPS. 7 of his 24 RBI have come off the Yanks, as have 5 of his 18 extra basehits.
Overall, he's 8 for his last 29 (.276). A few days ago, I declared that he needed to hit .250+ for a stretch of 5 games, and he's doing that. By doing so, he's continuing to earn his spot in the lineup.
The Man of the Game:
Nick Green - 2/4, HR, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R
Wakefield vs. Wang tonight.
Source:
ESPN.com
Photo Credit:
AP Photo/Winslow Townson
