The Yankees somehow eked out a sweep against the Orioles, which was extremely unexpected given their performance against the team most of the season and the fact that Darrell Rasner was pitching one of the games in the series. Well, Rasner himself was pretty awful but luckily Daniel Cabrera seems to have remembered he is Daniel Cabrera (though he only hit one batter) and even with some bad idea matchups in the bullpen the Yankees pulled a win out of their butts.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t really mean much unless they take at least 2 out of 3 against the Red Sox so let’s take a look at the pitching matchups there:
Tuesday, August 26th
Andy Pettitte (13-9, 4.17ERA, 1.344WHIP) vs Tim Wakefield (7-8, 3.67ERA, 1.177WHIP)
This game could easily go either way, as experienced Yankee fans know there are two versions of Andy: Really good or really bad. There is rarely anything in between. The same is true for Tim Wakefield.
Wednesday, August 27th
Sidney Ponson (7-4, 4.67ERA, 1.585WHIP) vs Paul Byrd (8-11, 4.39ERA, 1.303WHIP)
Sidney Ponson is pretty putrid, and Paul Byrd isn’t all that bad but he gives up a lot of homeruns which could work in the Yankees favor if they take their time with him.
Thursday, August 28th
Mike Mussina (16-7, 3.45ERA, 1.211WHIP) vs Jon Lester (12-5, 3.49ERA, 1.318WHIP)
Mussina was screwed by the Yankees’ amazing outfield defense the other night (he should have had a quality start but Bobby Abreu and Johnny Damon were having none of that) and looked okay against the tough Baltimore offense even though he didn’t have his best stuff. Jon Lester has really come around this year, and has been very tough on the Yankees but had a bad last start so the team should hope he’s tired or something.
Outlook: All of these matchups could easily go either way, I am a downer though and don’t see the Yankees taking 2 out of 3 here.
