With the rainout last night for NY, there was excitement because Pettitte will now be able to pitch during the Sox series. He would have pitched tonight.
Hughes pitches tonight instead.
Is Torre trying to give Hughes the start that he thought he was going to get, or matching up Pettitte against the Sox? Both?
It is only game 20 or so. Again, even if the Sox sweep this weekend and go 7-8 games up, it will still only be April. As a Sox fan, I would be concerned to fall behind that much this early, but with 140 games to go, 7-8 games isn't a huge deal.
Isn't it just as important to beat Toronto tonight as the Red Sox this weekend to the Yankees?
The reason I really ask is because the Sox claim to play every game as if it is as important as any other. Of course, the argument can be made that Francona gave Tavaras that in between start before the Yankees series to line up Schilling, Beckett, and Daisuke.
So what is the real story with pitching matchups this early in the season?
As the guys over at Fire Brand of the American League so nicely pointed out, the Red Sox are 19-8 against the Yankees in April and 34-54 the rest of the season (last 7 seaasons). This is an important series if you want to play the statistics game. This will mean 6 games in April and seeing that we have 12 more games against them this year, this series may factor in to how wins the division and who's runner up. That being said, as Grieve pointed out both teams have to do something about those pesky Blue Jays from up north.
ReplyDeleteI think a lot of it is to take some pressure off the kid in his first start. And they get their only two veterans agains their (supposed) biggest rival. So I think it is actually the smart move. Of course they probably aren't winning tonight and need to worry about TB for now. I know it won't last but those jokes are funny for now.
ReplyDeleteI don't particularly like using Papelbon tonight in a 3 run game. I know he has not worked since Sunday. And the book says save situation bring him in. But it totally sets up a Saturday game where he is unavailable. Of course we do have the Darkman to come in and shut them down.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I agree about Papelbon...Give that inning to Donnelley or Timlin and if they get in a bit of trouble, then maybe bring him in...
ReplyDeleteBut Francona might have seen the weather report for today (there will probably be a double-header tomorrow...even though the game isn't officially off, yet) and thought that going in to NY definitely 5.5 games up is better than 4.5 (especially with Tavarez pitching on Sunday).
By the way, not a very good outing for Hughes last night. For someone who is supposed to be a huge stud, anyway.
And lastly, check out
this Onion article...