Saturday, June 28, 2008

Messing with the Johan (Postgame Notes 28 June 08)

What better way to follow two blowouts (one bad, one good) than with a 3-2 nailbiter?

Today's game was without question the marquee pitching match up of the series, with Andy Pettitte and Johan Santana as the starters, and one way or another, the game had added significance as there are many (this blogger not among them) that believed the Yankees missed a chance to acquire Santana in the off season.

For his part, Santana did not pitch all that poorly--in fact, he even struck out the side in the second--but he got burned by the Yankees capitalizing on walks, and an utter lack of capitalization from his own offense.

Andy Pettitte pitched like Andy Pettitte, getting himself into trouble, and then almost effortlessly working himself out of it. He had his trademark double play, as well as a game-changing pick off of Jose Reyes to end the fifth.

The Yankees' offense looked silly the first three innings, but were able to scratch out the three runs when the opportunities arose, which was more than enough support for their pitchers.

Kyle Farnsworth kept paramedics everywhere busy with fly outs that flirted with disaster--the second out of the inning, caught by Johnny Damon, was about a foot shy of being the tying home run--but pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Farnsworth is probably the King of Relieving Dangerously.

Jose Veras continues to pitch well, and is fast becoming the most reliable arm in the bullpen outside of Mariano Rivera.

Speaking of Mariano Rivera.

Today he threw twelve pitches--ten of them strikes.

On the season, he has 42 strikeouts, three walks.

That's a K/BB ratio of 14.

His ERA on the season is 0.74.

Somebody, please get this guy a Cy Young?



Darrel Rasner will take the mound tomorrow, looking to rebound from a poor start in Pittsburgh. From the You-didn't-really-need-to-know-that files: In the four game series the Yankees are playing this weekend, he, Johan Santana and Dan Giese were the only starting pitchers not to have a first or last name begin with the letter "P"

2 comments:

  1. Nicely pitched game by the Yanks. On Sunday I hope that they hit Perez like everyone else does. It seems that the only team Perez pitches well against is the Yanks. The Yanks need to change that on Sunday and take the series.

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  2. go yankees! go on www.baseballilustrated.blogspot.com

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