Don't let the fact that the Blue Jays put up 5 runs in extra innings on Friday against super scrub Chan Ho Park and the struggling Robertson dissuade you in any way from pounding this total under tomorrow. I don't expect to see much of either clubs pen on Saturday. At the moment the Blue Jays are the coldest offensive team I've seen this year and Andy Pettitte is brilliant at taking advantage of teams which are not hitting the ball.The Yankees are having their own hitting woes as off late and their lack of bench depth is hindering them in this regard. When a regular is struggling the Yankees don't have the luxury of resting him for a few days and calling for a solid vet of the bench, because there are no solid vets off the bench for this team. Instead the teams has the Pena's, Huffman's and Curtis's of the world to call on these days.
This is a far cry from Yankees teams of the recent past who were stacked off the bench. Toronto lefty Ricky Romero is about as hot as his team is cold, posting a ludicrous 0.86 ERA over his last 21 innings pitched. He should not have a hard time shutting down a Yankees team that is lacking cohesiveness right now and really laboring a bit. Pettitte should be licking his chops tomorrow. The Blue Jays only scored one run in the first 9 innings of Fridays game and AJ Burnett was on the hill. Burnett came in with an ERA of Infinity over his previous 8 starts. Really people, this may end up a 1-0 game and If I can track down a total of 9, I may mortgage my house tomorrow morning before breakfast. These two clubs have not combined for more than 7 runs in any of their meetings this year, and Toronto has faced Vasquez (when he was struggling) and Burnett.
Dan Iassogna is going to be behind the plate on Saturday and he has been an unders umpire. He has called 5 overs and 11 unders in his 16 gigs behind the plate in 2010 and his called strike percentage is 63,2. For two pitchers who are throwing strikes he will be welcomed insurance in their mutual plight to crush the opponents batters will. Pettitte has been very hot with the strikeout ball recently whiffing 19 batters in his last 3 outings. The Blue Jays are a very free swinging ball club and Pettite may possibly be able to weasel himself out of a potential scoring threat situation by firing a strikeout at just the right time. When balls are put in play pitchers get hurt and the combination of his prowess for the K and the Blue Jays' tendency to chase has me feeling very confident that he has the weapons in tact to keep the Jays' cold bats quiet. This game has a 4-2 feel to it with two pitchers on the mound who are mowing down the opposition and two squads of hitters whom are laboring at the moment.