Thursday, April 19, 2007

Red Sox 07 Game 15

Friday, April 20 Fenway Park 7:05 PM ET

Andy Pettitte, LHP (1-0, 1.50) Yankees (8-6) @ Curt Schilling, RHP (2-1, 2.84) Red Sox (9-5)

Boston 1 game ahead NYY and 1 1/2 games ahead of Toronto and Baltimore. 1st game of 3 game series.

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.

From MLB.Com Scouting Report:

Red Sox: After a rough Opening Day in Kansas City, Schilling appears to be back in true form. On Saturday at Fenway, Schilling dominated the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, throwing eight shutout innings and allowing four hits on just 103 pitches, 68 of them strikes. It was the first time Schilling had thrown as many as eight shutout innings since late September in the championship season of 2004. Look for more of the same this season from Schilling, who finally appears to have gained command of his new changeup.

Yankees: Although the Yankees didn't win, Pettitte put in a solid performance in his last start against Oakland on Sunday, when he threw seven innings and allowed two runs (one earned) on six hits. The left-hander has allowed only one earned run in his first two starts. Pettitte will open the rivalry series with a 13-5 lifetime record and a 3.05 ERA against the Red Sox.

As usual all statistics were found at the day by day database at Baseball Musings and this year at Baseball Reference.

Expected Batters vs opposing starter

PlayerABHits2b3bHR'sRBIBB'sK'sBA
J. Lugo84000002.500
K. Youkilis------------------------------------
D. Ortiz229301326.409
M. Ramirez59257031854.424
J.D. Drew83102215.375
M. Lowell10000000.000
J. Varitek36131104312.361
C. Crisp40000001.000
D. Pedroia------------------------------------
Totals 138541216271129.391


Could be interesting to see if Wily Mo Pena starts instead of Coco. WMP is 3 for 7 against Pettitte with 2 rbi's. Other than WMP though the rest of the bench has 1 hit in 12 at bats. Looking at these numbers though you have to wonder how Pettitte has such a good ERA and win loss record against this team.

If you look at Varitek, Ortiz and Manny, you can see that those three are batting .402 with a .615 slugging percentage against this guy. If you add in J.D. Drew and Lugo's numbers the BA goes to .406 and the slugging increases to .695.

Historical Pitching lines
PitcherGSWLShoIPHERHRBBKERA
Pettitte211350140 2/3138474371143.01
Schilling1475097 1/391481829864.44


Out of 21 starts Pettitte has had 15 quality starts and has went six innings 17 of those starts. Schilling has 9 quality starts and gone six innings 10 times. So, you have two quality pitchers facing each other. Definitely a #1 vs # 1 game. Must see TV.

What you have to like is this - (from MLB.com press pass) Schilling is 6 and 3 as a Sox but has gone 4 and 1 in his last six starts with a 3.43 ERA. In his last 3 starts at Fenway vs the spankees he is 2 - 0 with a 2.14 ERA (5ER / 21.0 IP). Overall in Fenway as a Sox he is 4 and 1 in 7 starts. 5 of those were quality starts, and he has a 3.97 ERA.

Things to worry about:
  • A-Rod is smoking hot, however he is only hitting .194 against Schilling.
  • Posada has a .345 average against Curt.
  • Abreu has a .370 average against Curt
  • Cano has a .353 average against Curt

Those are some pretty high numbers and the way the Yankees as a whole are swinging the bats you have to worry about them. Besides its the spankees.

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