Red Sox 07 Game 46

Wednesday, May 23    Yankee Stadium  7:05 PM ET
Curt Schilling, RHP (4-1, 3.57) Red Sox (31-14)
                 @
Andy Pettitte, LHP (2-3, 2.83) Yankees (20-23) 

AL East Standings

Team	W	L	GB	L 10	X W	X L
Boston	31	14	-	7-3	30	15
New York	20	24	10.5	4-6	24	20
Toronto	20	24	10.5	7-3	22	22
Baltimore	20	25	11.0	3-7	21	24
Tampa Bay	18	26	12.5	4-6	16	28

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: The big right-hander has labored a little in his last two outings. In his most recent start, Schilling gave up eight hits and two runs over six innings, throwing 118 pitches. Two starts ago, he allowed nine hits and four runs over 5 1/3 innings against the Orioles. Both of those starts -- victories by Boston -- were no-decisions for Schilling. This is Schilling's second start of the year against the Yankees. He was touched up for eight hits and five runs on April 20, a game the Red Sox went on to win in dramatic fashion after Schilling's exit.

Yankees: Pettitte pitched well enough to win on Friday, but the Yankees continued to slide backward as the offense couldn't help the left-hander out in a 3-2 loss in the opening game of the Subway Series at Shea Stadium. Pettitte gave up five hits and three earned runs in seven innings, striking out four and walking one in the loss. He dropped to 2-3 on the season with a 2.83 ERA. Against the Red Sox in his career, Pettitte owns a 13-6 record and 3.18 ERA.

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	H	2b	3b	HR's	RBI	BB's	K's	BA
J. Lugo	13	5	0	0	0	0	2	2	.385
K. Youkilis	4	3	0	0	1	2	2	0	.750
D. Ortiz	28	10	3	0	1	4	3	7	.357
M. Ramirez	64	26	7	0	3	18	6	5	.406
J.D. Drew	14	6	1	0	2	2	1	5	.429
M. Lowell	6	1	0	0	0	1	1	0	.167
J. Varitek	41	15	1	1	1	6	4	14	.366
C. Crisp	9	2	0	0	0	0	0	3	.222
D. Pedroia	4	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	183	68	12	1	8	33	19	36	.372

Everybody agrees that J.D. Drew and Manny have been struggling this year. This should be a break out game for them since they combine for 8 doubles and 5 home runs while batting .410 against Pettitte. However, knowing Tito, I can just see him playing Wily Mo Pena for Drew. Hey, he hasn't done what was smart the first two games (see Hinske vs Wang, Mirabelli vs Mussina), so why should he start now! Of course the Sox are 1 and 1 in this series so maybe I should just shut up!

It would not surprise me to see Wily Mo playing tonight (if he does I would expect it to be in center for Coco). He is 3 for 8 against Andy with a double and 3 k's. That is better than Coco's numbers and if Tito really wants to get WMP his AB's then this would be a situation where he might try to get him 3 or 4 AB's.

Historical Pitching line

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Schilling	11	6	3	0	75 1/3	72	38	15	18	60	4.54	1.19
Pettitte	23	13	6	0	152 2/3	152	54	6	45	122	3.18	1.29

Two things surprised me about this matchup:

1. Curt has a very high ERA vs the Yankees and its even worse in the Bronx.
   
2. Andy does worse in the Bronx than overall.

In three starts as a Sox, Curt has had a great outing 9/10/2005, a bad outing 5/10/2006 followed by another great outing 6/8/2006. Below is the pitcher breakdowns in the Bronx.

Historical Pitching line in the Bronx

Pitcher	GS	W	L	Sho	IP	H	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP
Schilling	3	2	1	0	21	17	11	7	4	15	4.71	1.00
Pettitte	13	8	4	0	88	80	33	3	26	79	3.38	1.20

If you threw out the one bad game that Curt has had in the Bronx his ERA drops almost 2 runs (2.81 vs 4.71) and his WHIP is an unreal .69 in those two games.

Chow!