The New York Yankees dominated the New York Mets by a score of 15-0. A.J. Burnett started and got the win. If you look at what I posted below, you can see that I almost guaranteed that the Yankees would win because A.J. Burnett had Cervelli as his catcher. During the post game, A.J. said about Cervelli.. “I just win with him, you know? He knows everything I want to throw and puts down everything I want to throw. I mean, I shook him once or twice all game and I thought my mind was free and I was free and just having fun out there.” To me, a catcher makes a big difference in a game and could be the difference in whether you win or lose. It’s the second most important position in baseball if not the most important. In the first inning, Burnett was trying to establish his fourth pitch, his change up which I found kind of odd. Nonetheless, Burnett was establishing his curveball for strikes and making the right handed batters buckle. It was awesome today. He was throwing his curveball when he was behind in the count because he had a lot of confidence in it. In the third inning, he got into a little trouble. He was throwing his 4-Seam Fastball too much and walked two batters and gave up a single and was presented with the bases loaded. He then went back to his curveball and struck out the next two batters and got Beltran to line out. Did Cervelli help him through that inning? I believe he did. A.J. is comfortable with Cervelli and most likely had confidence in getting out of the inning because he knew Cervelli was going to call the right pitch. A.J. had the right-handed batters locking up and leaning out over the plate and the balls he threw were on the outside corner for a strike. Burnett did not pitch backwards. Besides the beginning of the third inning, he mixed in all of his pitches and created doubt to the Mets’ batters on what he was going to throw. They didn’t know what he was going to throw. That usually doesn’t work well with younger pitchers. How about the Yankee batters dominating Johan Santana? Whoa. His velocity was down and he only has two pitches as well. When there’s not much separation between his fastball and change up, he’s not going to pitch well. The second inning was important for the Yankees. They strung together three straight, two out, two strike hits. Santana had to think he was going to get out of the inning because he was facing Cervelli with two outs and two men on but Cervelli reached out and singled to right-center. I believe that affected Santana and threw him off of his game. After that point, Santana’s velocity dropped and his velocity wasn’t the same. It was a back-breaking hit. Awesome game. Awesome win and the Red Sox lost. You know what? Doesn’t it feel good to win? Especially an easy win? I’m going to feel pretty good these next two days. Player of the Game: Francisco Cervelli. He called a great game and had a big hit against Santana with two outs.
