MLB Odds: Yankees Seek Short Sweep Over Red Sox
New York has started the season with five wins in its first seven games over rival Boston. The Yankees go for No. 6 tonight behind southpaw C.C. Sabathia.
At first glance it looks like a matchup between two old rivals, each with their ace scheduled to take the mound. Dig a little deeper, however, and a different picture emerges.
Tuesday night's finale of the short two-game set in the Bronx will still pit hated rivals Boston and New York. But neither Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett nor Yankees lefty C.C. Sabathia have pitched much like Aces when facing each other this season.
Beckett and Sabathia squared off in the 2010 season opener on April 4, and each has one more start against their Tuesday opposition since then. Their stats in those outings look more like numbers you'd see from a beer league softball game than a big league contest.
In his two starts versus the Yankees, Beckett (4-3, 7.46) has tossed 10 combined innings and seen 14 earned runs cross the plate. New York has taken him deep three times among the 17 hits the Yanks have tallied in those 10 frames.
Beckett's last start came in Boston on May 7, a 10-3 loss to the Yankees. He missed his last start due to back spasms and will be looking for just his fourth quality outing of 2010.
Sabathia (5-3, 3.71) has pitched far better than Beckett this season with five quality starts among his eight assignments. But in his two outings against the BoSox, the chunky lefty has surrendered eight earned in 10 innings. He's coming off a loss last Thursday in Detroit where he allowed six runs in six innings of New York's 6-0 defeat.
This will be just the third home start for Sabathia this season. He's been very effective at home with 14 innings of work and only two earned runs allowed. Both of his previous home outings were wins over the Rangers and Orioles.
Angel Campos gets his eighth call of the season behind the plate. His previous seven games calling balls and strikes have seen the visitors come out on top four times. The California native has leaned heavily to the 'over' at 5-2.
It is supposed to be a rainy day in the New York City area on Tuesday. Current forecasts call for a 70 percent chance of showers during the day, tapering to 50 percent in the evening. Daytime highs are not expected to make it much past the mid-50s. Evening winds are listed at 10-20 mph out of the NNE (in from LF). Considering Boston has two more trips back to New York this season, it might not take much to postpone this one.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
New York has started the season with five wins in its first seven games over rival Boston. The Yankees go for No. 6 tonight behind southpaw C.C. Sabathia.
At first glance it looks like a matchup between two old rivals, each with their ace scheduled to take the mound. Dig a little deeper, however, and a different picture emerges.
Tuesday night's finale of the short two-game set in the Bronx will still pit hated rivals Boston and New York. But neither Red Sox right-hander Josh Beckett nor Yankees lefty C.C. Sabathia have pitched much like Aces when facing each other this season.
Sports books opened the Yankees anywhere from 180 to 200 favorites with the initial 9 ½-run total quickly dropped to nine.
Pitching was nowhere to be found in the series opener on Monday. Marcus Thames' two-run walk-off shot gave New York a wild 11-9 win. Monday night. The Sox slapped five homers, two by Victor Martinez, to rally from a 5-0 first-inning hole. The Yankees were 185 favorites and the game went 'over' the closing number (9) in the top of the fifth.Beckett and Sabathia squared off in the 2010 season opener on April 4, and each has one more start against their Tuesday opposition since then. Their stats in those outings look more like numbers you'd see from a beer league softball game than a big league contest.
In his two starts versus the Yankees, Beckett (4-3, 7.46) has tossed 10 combined innings and seen 14 earned runs cross the plate. New York has taken him deep three times among the 17 hits the Yanks have tallied in those 10 frames.
Beckett's last start came in Boston on May 7, a 10-3 loss to the Yankees. He missed his last start due to back spasms and will be looking for just his fourth quality outing of 2010.
Sabathia (5-3, 3.71) has pitched far better than Beckett this season with five quality starts among his eight assignments. But in his two outings against the BoSox, the chunky lefty has surrendered eight earned in 10 innings. He's coming off a loss last Thursday in Detroit where he allowed six runs in six innings of New York's 6-0 defeat.
This will be just the third home start for Sabathia this season. He's been very effective at home with 14 innings of work and only two earned runs allowed. Both of his previous home outings were wins over the Rangers and Orioles.
Angel Campos gets his eighth call of the season behind the plate. His previous seven games calling balls and strikes have seen the visitors come out on top four times. The California native has leaned heavily to the 'over' at 5-2.
It is supposed to be a rainy day in the New York City area on Tuesday. Current forecasts call for a 70 percent chance of showers during the day, tapering to 50 percent in the evening. Daytime highs are not expected to make it much past the mid-50s. Evening winds are listed at 10-20 mph out of the NNE (in from LF). Considering Boston has two more trips back to New York this season, it might not take much to postpone this one.
NOTE: The W-L records shown for starting pitchers are their team's W-L mark when they started games in the 2010 season. Statistical sources for this article were Retrosheet.org, Baseball-Reference.com, ESPN.com and, of course, S-BEE-R-dot-com!
