Red Sox 07 Game 44

Monday, May 21      Yankee Stadium  7:05 PM ET  

Tim Wakefield, RHP (4-4, 2.41)
Red Sox (30-13)

          @

Chien-Ming Wang, RHP (2-3,4.54)
Yankees (19-23)

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	30	13	-	7-3	29	14
Baltimore	20	24	10.5	4-6	21	23
New York	19	23	10.5	3-7	23	19
Toronto	19	24	11	6-4	21	22
Tampa Bay	18	25	12	4-6	16	27

ESPN.Com preview should be here.
Yahoo's preview should be here.
The recap after the game will be here.
Almost guarantee there will be a press pass today and it should be here.
From MLB.Com Scouting Report

Yankees: New York considered starting Wang against the Mets on Sunday, but that changed after the right-hander threw 91 pitches against the White Sox last Wednesday in an 8-1 winning effort. Wang pitched seven strong innings, limiting Chicago to six hits and one earned run while securing a split of a day-night doubleheader at U.S. Cellular Field. Wang gave up four runs in six innings in his last start against the Red Sox. He surrendered two homers, struck out one and walked three.

Red Sox: Save for two knucklers that didn't knuckle -- to Detroit's Brandon Inge and Magglio Ordonez, who hit long fourth-inning home runs at Fenway Park on Tuesday -- Wakefield was relatively effective in his last start against the Tigers, the Majors' third-best run-scoring team. This is Wakefield's second appearance of the year at Yankee Stadium. On April 28, Wakefield took the loss to New York, giving up five hits and three runs over 5 1/3 innings while walking six.

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

Player	AB	Hits	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	21	6	1	0	0	0	4	3	.286
K. Youkilis	11	4	1	0	0	1	5	0	.364
D. Ortiz	20	9	2	0	2	6	3	2	.450
M. Ramirez	16	10	0	0	2	5	4	2	.625
J.D. Drew	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
M. Lowell	15	3	1	0	0	0	3	0	.200
D. Mirabelli	4	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	.250
C. Crisp	12	3	0	1	0	0	0	2	.250
D. Pedroia	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	99	36	5	1	4	13	19	9	.364

As you can see the Sox have pretty good numbers vs Wang. I would not be surprised to see Alex Cora start (4 for 13 with 1 home run) or Eric Hinske (10 for 19 with 4 doubles, 2 home runs and 1 walk). As we have seen this year, Tito is not afraid to put in players who have good numbers vs the starting pitcher.

So my guess is we will see Cora at 2nd and Hinske in Right.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Wakefield	26	9	14	0	193 1/3	166	99	33	99	131	4.61
Wang	7	2	4	0	46 1/3	55	26	6	22	15	5.05

Just looking at those numbers you would have to like our chances against Wang. However, in the Bronx these are two very different pitchers. Here are their lines at the Bronx:

Historical Pitching line in the Bronx

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA
Wakefield	12	5	5	0	73	53	29	9	47	53	3.58
Wang	3	1	2	0	22 2/3	29	10	3	7	8	3.97

Both pitchers have very good numbers in the Bronx and have probably pitched better than their records indicate. Should be an exciting game.

One other thing, Wakefields WHIP in the Bronx 1.37 and Wang's is 1.59
Chow!