Josh Beckett, Red Sox open season with Yankees
A perfect storm is pounding fans and bettors right now with the start of the baseball season just a small part. The college hoops season reaches its climax while both the NHL and NBA wind their regular schedules down. Even golf is making headlines with some fuss about a tournament called the Masters and a hacker named Eldrick Woods. A Yankees, Red Sox game almost seems ordinary by comparison. Almost.
It is just one game among the 2,430 on the MLB schedule this season, and at the same time it's so much more than just one game.
Sunday's battle between the Yankees and Red Sox will officially start the 2010 MLB campaign. Opening Day may still be Monday, technically. But Opening Night is extra special this year with the two old rivals meeting at venerable Fenway Park, each with their ace on the hill.
Overnights opened with the Red Sox slight favorites in the 110 to 115 range. Nine was the starting figure for the 'total,' with the 'over' sporting the chalkier price.
The showdown is nothing new, of course, with the old American League foes. Two-thousand-ten marks the 110th consecutive season the franchises have met each other on the diamond. It will be the 98th season that at least some of those games have been played at Fenway. Three of the 18 conflicts in 2009 played out under the lamps of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
One of those games pitted C.C. Sabathia (22-10, 3.37 ERA) against Josh Beckett (22-10, 3.86) on the dirt and grass at 4 Yawkey Way.
New York won that one, 8-4, giving the Yanks a three-game win streak when Sabathia is on the hill against the Sox. The big-money free agent opened his pinstripe career losing his first assignment against the BoSox before winning the following three. It was the only time he squared off against Becket.
Sabathia worked 27 2/3 innings in total against the Sox lineup in 2009, striking out 31, walking six and recording a 2.27 ERA. The southpaw's only loss to Boston occurred at Fenway on June 11.
The loss for Beckett was his second straight to New York after opening the season with the Red Sox winning his first three starts versus the Yankees. The right-hander faced the Yanks for 32 innings last season with a 5.34 ERA and a 29/7 K:BB ratio.
Two of the starts were pretty ugly, though Boston managed to win one of them. Of the 91 total earned runs Beckett allowed last season, 16 of them (17.5 percent) came in an April 25 and the August 23 outings against New York.
The two clubs split last season's 18 meetings. If you bet the Yanks in each one, you dropped a little less than a dollar. If you bet the Sox all 18, you won a little more than a quarter.
Boston backers were rolling in profits early on with the Red Sox winning the first eight encounters before New York broke through with its first triumph in August. The Yankees managed to even the season series by taking nine of the final 10 encounters. Favorites won 13 of the 18 contests.
Ticket buyers who favor the 'under' posted a small profit. The low side of the 'totals' held an 8-7 edge with three 'pushes' based on closing marks. Only one of the 18 games closed with a 'total' below nine. You guessed it, the August 23 game between Sabathia and Beckett that went into the books at 8 ½.
For future reference, there was also just one game last season above 10 ½, a June 10 contest between Tim Wakefield and Chien-Ming Wang that 'pushed' on 11. That's a testament to how deep both rotations and bullpens were a year ago and still are this season.
The series will skip Monday before taking back up on Tuesday when New York sends A.J. Burnett (21-12, 4.04 ERA) against left-hander Jon Lester (22-10, 3.41). The three-game set concludes Wednesday with left-hander Andy Pettitte (21-11, 4.16) facing John Lackey (15-12, 3.83) who will be making his Boston debut.
Both teams will take Thursday off with the Yankees traveling to Tampa to face the Rays this weekend and the Red Sox heading to the heartland to meet the Royals.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2009 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
A perfect storm is pounding fans and bettors right now with the start of the baseball season just a small part. The college hoops season reaches its climax while both the NHL and NBA wind their regular schedules down. Even golf is making headlines with some fuss about a tournament called the Masters and a hacker named Eldrick Woods. A Yankees, Red Sox game almost seems ordinary by comparison. Almost.
It is just one game among the 2,430 on the MLB schedule this season, and at the same time it's so much more than just one game.
Sunday's battle between the Yankees and Red Sox will officially start the 2010 MLB campaign. Opening Day may still be Monday, technically. But Opening Night is extra special this year with the two old rivals meeting at venerable Fenway Park, each with their ace on the hill.
Overnights opened with the Red Sox slight favorites in the 110 to 115 range. Nine was the starting figure for the 'total,' with the 'over' sporting the chalkier price.
The showdown is nothing new, of course, with the old American League foes. Two-thousand-ten marks the 110th consecutive season the franchises have met each other on the diamond. It will be the 98th season that at least some of those games have been played at Fenway. Three of the 18 conflicts in 2009 played out under the lamps of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.
One of those games pitted C.C. Sabathia (22-10, 3.37 ERA) against Josh Beckett (22-10, 3.86) on the dirt and grass at 4 Yawkey Way.
New York won that one, 8-4, giving the Yanks a three-game win streak when Sabathia is on the hill against the Sox. The big-money free agent opened his pinstripe career losing his first assignment against the BoSox before winning the following three. It was the only time he squared off against Becket.
Sabathia worked 27 2/3 innings in total against the Sox lineup in 2009, striking out 31, walking six and recording a 2.27 ERA. The southpaw's only loss to Boston occurred at Fenway on June 11.
The loss for Beckett was his second straight to New York after opening the season with the Red Sox winning his first three starts versus the Yankees. The right-hander faced the Yanks for 32 innings last season with a 5.34 ERA and a 29/7 K:BB ratio.
Two of the starts were pretty ugly, though Boston managed to win one of them. Of the 91 total earned runs Beckett allowed last season, 16 of them (17.5 percent) came in an April 25 and the August 23 outings against New York.
The two clubs split last season's 18 meetings. If you bet the Yanks in each one, you dropped a little less than a dollar. If you bet the Sox all 18, you won a little more than a quarter.
Boston backers were rolling in profits early on with the Red Sox winning the first eight encounters before New York broke through with its first triumph in August. The Yankees managed to even the season series by taking nine of the final 10 encounters. Favorites won 13 of the 18 contests.
Ticket buyers who favor the 'under' posted a small profit. The low side of the 'totals' held an 8-7 edge with three 'pushes' based on closing marks. Only one of the 18 games closed with a 'total' below nine. You guessed it, the August 23 game between Sabathia and Beckett that went into the books at 8 ½.
For future reference, there was also just one game last season above 10 ½, a June 10 contest between Tim Wakefield and Chien-Ming Wang that 'pushed' on 11. That's a testament to how deep both rotations and bullpens were a year ago and still are this season.
The series will skip Monday before taking back up on Tuesday when New York sends A.J. Burnett (21-12, 4.04 ERA) against left-hander Jon Lester (22-10, 3.41). The three-game set concludes Wednesday with left-hander Andy Pettitte (21-11, 4.16) facing John Lackey (15-12, 3.83) who will be making his Boston debut.
Both teams will take Thursday off with the Yankees traveling to Tampa to face the Rays this weekend and the Red Sox heading to the heartland to meet the Royals.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2009 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
