Sunday, August 23, 2009

Tonight's a Big One For CC

With A.J. Burnett's third embarrassing start in Fenway yesterday, no Yankee starter besides Joba Chamberlain (sort of) has shown that they can pitch well in Fenway this year.

A.J. Burnett: 0-2, 14.21 ERA, 2.52 WHIP

Andy Pettitte: 1-1, 6.55 ERA, 1.72 WHIP

CC Sabathia: 0-0, 5.14 ERA, 1.14 WHIP

And then there's Joba who is 0-0, with a 1.69 ERA in one start this year. But in that game the Sox had a ton of men on base (2.43 WHIP) so it's wasn't really that good of a start. He was one or two hits away from having an ERA like the rest of them.

CC needs to step up and pitch a big game tonight, like 8 innings of one run baseball big. Even if he loses 1-0, at least it will show that someone on this staff doesn't turn into a spinless jellyfish under the bright lights of Fenway Park.

As far as the standings go this isn't that big of a game, but let's say CC stinks up the field tonight and then down the road the Yankees and Sox meet again in October. How comfortable would you feel heading into that series? Remember, they'd have to face Jon Lester and Josh Beckett at least two times each and both of them have proven they can not only pitch in Yankee Stadium, but they can also pitch in the postseason.

4 Comments:

Mike N. said...

I actually do feel that this is a big game. If they're only up 5.5 games coming out of this series than the Sox still feel like they have a shot at the division. 5.5 games at the end of August is very doable.

However, if they go up 7.5 games, Boston really has to pretty much give up and Joe can start looking towards resting his starters in September.

Anonymous said...

A win tonight would be huge in so many ways. It would conplete a 7-3 road trip, it would prove that we can beat someone else's ace in a hostile environment and would give the Yanks a 7.5 game lead with 38 games to play. In other words, we can punch our ticket to october with a win tonight.

Anonymous said...

Joba does pitch well at fenway. He would of got the win this year if Mo didn't blow the save. Last year he had that brilliant outing where he outpitched Beckett.

But even the great Mariano struggles at Fenway. Redsox are a different team at home thats why getting homefield advantage against them in the playoffs will be huge.

I would start Sabathia, Burnett at home and Chamberlain and Pettite at Fenway during the playoffs.

Greg Cohen said...

Ok fair enough, it is important but I don't think the Yankees aren't going to win the division if they lose, let me put it that way.

As for Joba at Fenway earlier it was a decent game, but he lucked out with several double plays, and walked the ballpark. A WHIP over 2 is terrible.