April 25th @ New York

[dirtdogman5]

Today we will sweep the MFY in their house. Pedro will be dominating and we will tee off on Vazquez. Well, just win the game. This game is big with the Yankees going into a very tough May schedule (3 against Oakland this week) and us going into a relatively easy one. Let's make the MFY fans cry even more than they are now. Just win, baby. It is on.

[yeszir]

This should be a great game. If Bronson shut down the yankees like he did, I cant wait to see what Pedro will do against their slumping bats. If we sweep 'em at their own stadium, I can only imagine the cries of despair that will come from yankee fans. It may be a blow that the yankees wouldnt ever truly recover from. Winning 6-7 against New York would be one of the highlights of my Red Sox life. Heck, seeing the fans' reactions now already is a highlight. I love it.

[dirtdogman5]

Originally posted by yeszir@Apr 25 2004, 10:23 AM

Winning 6-7 against New York would be one of the highlights of my Red Sox life. Heck, seeing the fans' reactions now already is a highlight. I love it.

Amen.

[roary]

What do you think the spankee fans will do when Pedro takes the mound? Will they jeer and boo or will they realize that the sox have been shutting their team down mercilessly and they have no right to boo? Either way, I look forward to pedro shutting them down.

 

In his career in Yankee stadium Pedro has pitched beautifully:

G	GS	W	L	SV	CG	SHO	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	K	ERA	WHIP	BAA	
12	12	6	3	0	4	1	83.0	61	23	23	4	16	112	2.49	0.93	.201

 

So, despite what yankee fans'll tell you, Pedro owns their team.

[CalvnHobs6]

A sweep of the Yankees will make my life. Oh man.

Something else that makes me happy is watching the Yankee fans boo their own team. Beautiful.

[yeszir]

Unfortunately, Vazquez looks pretty good. 4 k's in two innings, but he did give up a hit and a hbp. Pedro looks damn good too, and whats up with millar, flashing the leather.

[yawkeyway]

Wow. Vazquez is on. 6 K's through 3.

 

Pedro just took a shot off his foot, here's hoping he's ok. I'm not sure if Vaz can last long enough to help the yankees win. He's only pitched on 3 days rest once in his career.

[yawkeyway]

Wow. 7 strikeouts now. I'm starting to get worried. I'd be really worried if we didnt have pedro on the hill. But he is giving up some walks and stuff like that. Hopefully we can just scratch away and come up with a win.

 

YESYESYESYEYSEYSYESY AHAHAHA!! So much for great pitching vazquez. I take back what I said.

[yeszir]

It seems like half of the stadium was up and cheering for that manny shot. Sox fans are taking over!

 

And for vazquez, his pitch count is getting up there, around 65 after 3 ip. Thats the downside of getting so many K's. Now Pedro has a lead to work with, so I feel much more comfortable. Phew.

[roary]

http://www.huatki.com/topsite/members/photob1/Broom.jpg

 

Man, Jeter sucks.

[yeszir]

 

Again, the sox had next to no offense and no RISP capitalization, but the yankees were even worse. And how about that bullpen. Man, am I ever happy. And we dont have to face the yankees again until june 29th I believe, so we have some time to extend our lead before beating them mercilessly again.

[yagmaster]

When was the last time the MFY got swept at home?

[peskypole]

Sweepy Sweepy. I love the Sox to far this year!

[dirtdogman5]

Man, I just realized how much I really love that dirty water!

[DuffyCliff]

The Sox men LOB is starting to concern me a little bit, but it was a little more comfortable today knowing that they were up against a pitcher of Vazquez's quality. 2 runs is usually enough for Pedro, and it was today.

 

I think this should put away all the worry about P-Mart and his health. I no longer live in the New England area so I have DirecTV and was forced to deal with the YES Network broadcast today. I'm not sure if NESN had the gun or not, but I counted 4 of Pedro's pitches to be at 93 mph and more than a dozen at 91-92. It didn't really matter because for the most part, he was hitting his spots and was able to wrap his E.T. fingers around the ball to throw that sick Curve and Change for strikes.

 

It was Pedro's best outing of the season coming off an almost equally impressive 7 IP, 1 ER start against the Jays in SkyDome. Pedro is now 3-1 with an ERA just over 3, and has had to face the opposing team's Ace in all five of his starts:

 

04/04: S. Ponson

04/10: R. Halladay

04/15: S. Ponson

04/20: R. Halladay

04/25: J. Vazquez

 

Four of five starts have been those of Quality (At least 6 IP, 3 ER or better), and it is worth noting that PJ has either outlasted or pitched the same amount of innings in each of his starts against his counterpart. If he stays healthy and makes around 32 starts (something he hasn't done in quite awhile.. 1998 to be exact: 33 GS), then I think he'll win 20 games and have over 200 IPs. With his dominance, you can also probably rack up a 6th ERA title next to that as well as a 4th CYA. The K's are obviously not going to be like before and he actually may wind up throwing more Innings than he has Strikeouts for the first time since 1995.

[yeszir]

Although I see what you are saying, Mussina is considered the Yankee's "ace" although he is certainly not pitching like it now.

 

This start should certainly quiet the pedro critics, even if his next start is only so-so. No matter what he is throwing (NESN didnt have a gun, so you got some benefit from watching YES at least), he is still able to get the best hitters in the game out.

 

While he is pitching a lot of innings right now, its because Tito wants to rest the bullpen. I think we may see him going 6 innings in the future as his arm gets progressively more tired and he becomes more of an injury risk. Then his K's might creep up over his IP #.

 

Welcome to the site by the way Duffycliff!

[CalvnHobs6]

It's fun having a team with 3 potential closers (Williamson, Timlin, and oh yeah, Foulke) and 3 potential aces (Petey, Schilling, DLowe).

 

It's a good thing the Blue Jays are starting to come around and the O's are starting to realize their lack of pitching. Baltie was starting to scare me.

[DuffyCliff]

Originally posted by yeszir@Apr 25 2004, 04:23 PM

Although I see what you are saying, Mussina is considered the Yankee's "ace" although he is certainly not pitching like it now.

 

This start should certainly quiet the pedro critics, even if his next start is only so-so. No matter what he is throwing (NESN didnt have a gun, so you got some benefit from watching YES at least), he is still able to get the best hitters in the game out.

 

While he is pitching a lot of innings right now, its because Tito wants to rest the bullpen. I think we may see him going 6 innings in the future as his arm gets progressively more tired and he becomes more of an injury risk. Then his K's might creep up over his IP #.

 

Welcome to the site by the way Duffycliff!

You're right, Mussina does have the Ace label, so let's reword that: The Yankees best overall pitcher.

 

Pedro, Tito is going specifically on pitch count, not innings. When Pedro throws strikes and makes the most of his pitches, he'll go 7 or more every time and win. I think as the year progresses, his arm is only going to get stronger and more conditioned. He was hitting 93 today for the first time all year. He'll eventually begin to tire towards the end but I'm talking about May, June, July... getting more conditioned. Right now he is going at a nice little pace that shouldn't be messed with. I don't think he'll be so-so too often either. Pedro has gotten to a point where he has made it look so easy that he needs a kick in the ass like the Baltimore bombing at Fenway to set a fire underneath him. I expect 6-7 IP, 0-2 ER outings from here on out. That will get him 20 wins and the ERA title with this ballclub.

 

As for Schilling, he needs to get over the Complete Game obsession. Looking at his two starts in which he's pitched over 7 innings, he's allowed 4 and 7 ER respectively in those outings overall. That tells me he isn't much more effective than Pedro after 100 pitches today at 37 years old. Our Bullpen is incredible with Williamson/Timlin both being able to setup and then bring in "As-Good-As-Advertised" Keith Foulke to close it out.

[yeszir]

So I looked up Schilling's performances in his career when he is over 100 pithches. (I know this isnt related to today's game but, whatever)

 

When he gets really up there (136+ pitches, which may sometimes be required in a CG), his ERA has ballooned up to 8. I'd like to think that when Francona left him in too long, the whole "grady re-visited" thing, he was trying to teach him a lesson about wanting to pitch so much. In any case, he'll think about it a lot more closely after he gave up the lead.

[roary]

It amazes me that the sox can play so poorly (we had 4 hits, come on) and still beat out the Yankees. This is exactly why I dont expect it to last. Its not like we blasted them to the moon, destroyed their pitching, and made fools of their batters. The yankees are just in a rotten funk now, and maybe thats why we haven't gotten a lot of offense against them, like a mental thing or something. Kind of like how Pedro used to never get any run support.

[DuffyCliff]

Hmmm... never thought about it as Tito teaching him a lesson. I don't think you can justify throwing a game like that, but it was a game that the Red Sox could afford to lose if that was to be the case, and to see how Curt reacted to staying in the game that long. Now Tito can pull him without any argument. All he has to do is point to the Toronto game.

[DuffyCliff]

Originally posted by TheFens@Apr 25 2004, 04:49 PM

It amazes me that the sox can play so poorly (we had 4 hits, come on) and still beat out the Yankees. This is exactly why I dont expect it to last. Its not like we blasted them to the moon, destroyed their pitching, and made fools of their batters. The yankees are just in a rotten funk now, and maybe thats why we haven't gotten a lot of offense against them, like a mental thing or something. Kind of like how Pedro used to never get any run support.

Who is to say that the Yanks are going to get completely out of it and be the best lineup in history as they were so prematurely called at the beginning of the season? This Yankee team is not the ones of 1996-2001 that had heart and relied on great pitching and clutch hits. They have a bunch of great players, but they don't have a TEAM. They aren't hungry, the Red Sox are.

 

I think once Nomar and Nixon return to the lineup, we can expect more than 4 hits from our bats. For now, it is enough. The Red Sox need to pounce all over this chance and rack up as many "W"s as statistically possible. The Sox are throwing Wake, Schilling and D-Lowe at Fenway against Tampa Bay while the Yanks get to face Hudson, Mulder and Zito next.

[ARod2212]

We'll be back, Jeter's been invisible but A-Rod is turning it around. We'll start hitting, and I'm encouraged by our last few starts excluding Contreras. After the 1st in Chicago, Moose pitched 7 great innings, Brown pitched well after his 1st 2 shaky innings, and Javy was brilliant today. Lineup will turn it around soon. I think it was too early for us to play the Sox and expect to be effective. Usually it takes a month or so for the Yankees to get rolling (not including last year). Look back at the standings in August and September and we'll see who's in 1st.

[yeszir]

Originally posted by ARod2212@Apr 25 2004, 06:07 PM

Look back at the standings in August and September and we'll see who's in 1st.

There's a point in time when this argument will cease to work. It seems to me (or rather, it is true) that yankee fans rely on past and future rather than present when making arguments.

[roary]

Originally posted by DuffyCliff@Apr 25 2004, 05:54 PM

I think once Nomar and Nixon return to the lineup, we can expect more than 4 hits from our bats. For now, it is enough. The Red Sox need to pounce all over this chance and rack up as many "W"s as statistically possible. The Sox are throwing Wake, Schilling and D-Lowe at Fenway against Tampa Bay while the Yanks get to face Hudson, Mulder and Zito next.

This pitching staff with nomar and nixon added gives us a chance to sweep EVERY series. And the upcoming series are great for the sox.

[RedSoxRooter]

Great weekend... hangover.. killing.. me.. uhhh.

[roary]

Originally posted by RedSoxRooter@Apr 26 2004, 01:03 PM

Great weekend... hangover.. killing.. me.. uhhh.

Lol. A little too happy over the sox sweep?

[yawkeyway]

Sigh, an off day. There's nothing worse.

[CalvnHobs6]

Except for a bunch of off days in a row caused by rain. That's worse. Or cancer.