So the Yankees are down 0-7 against the Red Sox this year. It’s not a good feeling so I’ll take any win I can get. Tonight, all I ask for is one win. Just one. We have CC going so that has me feeling confident but not overly confident because these are the Red Sox we are playing and you just never know. The first thing we need to do is score with men in scoring position. That would be a good start. The Yankees left a lot of men on base last night. The only batter you can count on right now is Mark Teixeira. When you look at the box score of last night’s game, you see the Red Sox basically shut down the Yankee offense but then when you see Mark’s line, you’re like, wow, this guy is just bringing it. C.C. Sabathia has to be great. The Yankees gave him big money for a few reasons, to win big games, give the Yankees length and to step up in moments like tonight to stop losing streaks and start winning streaks. Kevin Youkilis has the most success against Sabathia albeit it’s only 7 at bats so Sabathia is going to have to get him on change ups down and away and mix if up against the rest of the Red Sox lineup. And no walks! If you look at the match up on paper, it’s a mismatch. It’s in the Yankees’ favor. Sabathia is the ace of the staff going against the fifth starter for the Red Sox. Brad Penny is basically a National League pitcher starting in the powerful A.L. East. He has no recent history against the Yankees so that’s working in his favor. The Yankees don’t know what they are going to see from him. It might take them a second go round in the order to get a good look at his stuff. Even though Penny didn’t pitch well against Texas the last time out, he has been pitching better as of late and only has given up more than three runs only twice in his last seven starts. He’s pitching at Boston with the home crowd so I wouldn’t be surprised if he pitches well tonight. John Smoltz is due back soon so Penny will probably be out of the rotation. Nonetheless, we don’t need him to be a hero against the Yanks. Still, Sabathia should throw seven dominant innings possibly eight innings and then give the ball over to Mariano. Then we could leave Boston and get back to New York and start thinking about the Mets. It’s too bad I have no Mets blog to talk trash with like I do SG.
