April 21 vs. New York

[TheKilo]

Feel like s***....someone else take care of this.

 

 

Beckett vs. Karstens

[ORS]

http://www.geocities.com/jpgr40/jb2.jpghttp://bellsouthpwp.net/c/h/chinigor/TALKSOX/VS.GIFhttp://www.battingpractice.com/images/VCoutside.gif

 

 

Josh Beckett.......................................................................................................Replacement Level Pitcher A

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f8/kembry/subscribe_WIN.jpg

[TheKilo]

http://www.geocities.com/jpgr40/jb2.jpghttp://bellsouthpwp.net/c/h/chinigor/TALKSOX/VS.GIFhttp://www.battingpractice.com/images/VCoutside.gif

 

 

Josh Beckett.......................................................................................................Replacement Level Pitcher A

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f8/kembry/subscribe_WIN.jpg

 

Thanks, ORS.

 

Hangovers suck.

[Cityofchampions33]

http://www.geocities.com/jpgr40/jb2.jpghttp://bellsouthpwp.net/c/h/chinigor/TALKSOX/VS.GIFhttp://www.battingpractice.com/images/VCoutside.gif

 

 

Josh Beckett.......................................................................................................Replacement Level Pitcher A

 

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f8/kembry/subscribe_WIN.jpg

 

haha fantastic picture for karstens, nuckin futs ORS

[Cityofchampions33]

Mojo: Brush that mutha back!

http://thefeed.blogs.com/photos/uncategorized/p1_rodriguez.jpg

[riverside sluggers]

Jeff Karstens (1st career appearance vs Boston)

Julio Lugo ---

Kevin Youkilis ---

David Ortiz ---

Manny Ramirez ---

J.D. Drew ---

Mike Lowell ---

Jason Varitek ---

Coco Crisp ---

Alex Cora ---

 

Josh Beckett (4 games vs New York, 2-2 record with a 9.45 ERA---Career at Fenway Park in 19 games, 9-6 record with a 4.48 ERA)

Melky Cabrera, 2 for 9 (.222 avg) Double, RBI, Walk, K, SB

Derek Jeter, 2 for 8 (.250 avg) Walk, 2 Ks, SB

Bobby Abreu, 6 for 39 (.154 avg) Double, 2 HRs, 4 RBIs, 15 Walks, 15 Ks, 2 SBs

Alex Rodriguez, 1 for 9 (.111 avg) Double, 2 RBIs, 3 Walks, 2 Ks

Jason Giambi, 3 for 7 (.429 avg) 2 HRs, 5 RBIs, 5 Walks, K

Robinson Cano, 4 for 8 (.500 avg) Double, HR, 3 RBIs, 2 Walks

Doug Mientkiewicz, 3 for 13 (.231 avg) HR, 2 RBIs, 2 Walks, K

Kevin Thompson ---

Wil Nieves ---

///

Miguel Cairo, 1 for 4 (.250 avg) RBI, Walk, 2 Ks, SB

Johnny Damon, 4 for 11 (.364 avg) 3 Doubles, 2 RBIs, Walk, 3 Ks

Jorge Posada, 2 for 7 (.286 avg) RBI, K, SB

[Cityofchampions33]

 

I like those stats against ARod for Beckett.

[BoSox21]

yea but A-Rod's stats vs. Schilling weren't great before last night either. guy is just hitting everything right now

[Optimist]

A lot of runs will be scored in this one. If Beckett picks up where he left off with this team last year, the Yankees will have their fair share of them.

[EvilDonut]

Actually didnt Beckett have two good starts against the Yanks at the end of the season?

[riverside sluggers]

His last start vs the Yankees was a win in which he went 7 innings, allowed 3 runs and struck out 7. He had 2 bad starts vs the Yankees yes, but he also had 2 quality starts against them.

 

This is not the same Beckett from last year. If have been paying attention he's not fastball, fastball, fastball... he's now throwing his curve more and for strikes, and his changeup (83-88 range) for strikes to keep hitters off balance

[ORS]

That was his first start against them. His last was 6 IP, 2 ER. His track record, 50/50, against them last year is moot. He's slowed his delivery down, has much better command of the FB, is throwing the curve more effectively and more often, and mixing in the 2-seam and change more. He's just a different pitcher.

 

We'll see how he fares. Personally, I love how the Yankee fans are counting on lots of runs today, after last nights let down, Beckett coming out and showing the differences I mentioned while shutting them down would be, what was it Jacko said, gravy. Yeah, it would be gravy. Nothing like watching the entitled not get they feel is their birthright.

[example1]

Schilling's record vs. A-Rod is much less important than Beckett's.

 

We all watched the game last night, I saw one or two pitches in the lower-mid 90's (one fast ball to A-Rod hit 94). He's clearly on a decline. He's still one heck of a competetor and doesn't walk guys to hurt himself (often). Beckett on the other hand CURRENTLY has some of the best stuff in baseball. If he has his head about him he can make A-Rod look bad even when A-Rod is in this streak.

 

Knock. Him. Down.

[ORS]

I don't think they need to knock him down. He's locked in middle-out, and he's fighting off the inner-half. Just bust him inside, up in the zone by the hands, and if you are going to miss, miss in to throw him off. No dusting, just take what he's giving you. He won't turn on Beckett's heater if it's by the hands.

[riverside sluggers]

True which is what I said in my previous post that he's not the same Beckett they had faced last year.

 

------

rotoworld

Johnny Damon is questionable for Saturday's game against the Red Sox due to a sore back.

 

"I'm hoping my back is all right. I had trouble with it in Minnesota because of the turf," Damon said. "It doesn't feel as good as it should." Damon said he felt a "burning sensation" in his back in the eighth inning of Friday's game.

 

Jorge Posada is also questionable to start today. It could swing even more toward the Sox's favor if Beckett has to face a lineup of:

 

1. Cabrera lf

2. Jeter ss

3. Abreu rf

4. Rodriguez 3b

5. Giambi dh

6. Cano 2b

7. Phelps 1b

8. Thompson cf

9. Nieves c

[yeszir]

Momentum!

[TheKilo]

PITCHING MATCHUP

 

Josh Beckett (3-0, 1.50 ERA)

http://www.redsoxjersey.net/joshbeckett.jpg

Beckett has won his first three starts for the second straight season, but as Yankees fans will point out, the 26-year-old's numbers took a dive after April 2006. Last Aug. 19, the Yankees tagged Beckett for nine runs in 5 2/3 innings at Fenway Park, where Beckett established a career worst with nine walks. Nonetheless, Beckett is currently one of the AL's hottest pitchers, and he appears to have gained better command of his breaking pitches this season.

 

 

Jeff Karstens (2-1, 3.80 ERA in 2006)

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/images/2006/08/27/4VJHQQtY.jpg

(lol)

Karstens will be making his 2007 debut after tightness in his right elbow consigned him to the disabled list. He faced six different AL teams last year after joining the Yankees, but the Red Sox weren't one of them. The Yankees were 3-3 in Karstens' starts.

 

 

PLAYER TO WATCH

Red Sox center fielder Coco Crisp burst out of his prolonged early-season slump in a big way on Friday, knocking home the game-tying runs against Rivera with a two-run triple. And yet both of his hits, including the triple, didn't leave the ground. Will Crisp sustain his success?

 

 

Hot Beckett Takes on Hotter A-Rod

 

His ninth-inning lineout in Friday's game notwithstanding, Alex Rodriguez is hotter than every living ballplayer right now. The Yankees third baseman managed to treat Fenway Park landmarks like targets on Friday night, giving Green Monster and bullpen denizens a couple of unwanted souvenirs.

 

There is no hotter ballplayer. And yet Red Sox starter Josh Beckett is unique among pitchers as the owner of both a steady, if limited, track record against Rodriguez -- who has only one hit in nine career at-bats against Beckett -- and one of baseball's best pitching records in the early going of 2007.

 

Against the hoopla of Saturday's nationally televised game, the Red Sox's steady second ace will have a lot to think about. There's more to baseball's most expensive team, Red Sox manager Terry Francona warned on Friday, than its most expensive player.

 

"He's about the best hitter in baseball right now," Francona said of Rodriguez. "Saying that, if you walk him enough, the guy on deck's going to hurt you. At some point, you've got to get people out, whether they're hot, not hot or in between."

 

In the Red Sox's favor, aside from a potential tide of momentum from Friday night's 7-6 thriller of a win, in which the bottom third of the Boston lineup spurred a comeback against Mariano Rivera, is the pitching matchup. Against Beckett, New York will start little-known right-hander Jeff Karstens, who made six starts last year in his first season, none of them against the Sox.

 

Karstens missed the first three weeks of the 2007 campaign with right elbow tendinitis, and until Thursday, he was rehabbing in Tampa, Fla.

 

But will it matter? Beckett last faced the Yankees last Aug. 19 and gave up nine runs in 5 2/3 innings. This year, New York starts just as "thick" a lineup from top to bottom, as Francona has put it.

 

"They do it better than anybody in baseball," Francona said. "There's no deep breath. And you can get hurt because of that."

[ORS]

http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/images/2006/08/27/4VJHQQtY.jpg

(lol)

Have you sheen my basheball?

 

FRANKS AND BEANS! FRANKS AND BEANS!

[TheKilo]

Today's Lineups:

 

1. Julio Lugo, SS

2. Kevin Youkilis, 1B

3. David Ortiz, DH

4. Manny Ramirez, LF

5. J.D. Drew, RF

6. Mike Lowell, 3B

7. Jason Varitek, C

8. Coco Crisp, CF

9. Alex Cora, 2B

 

SP - Josh Beckett

 

Yankees

 

1. Melky Cabrera, CF

2. Derek Jeter, SS

3. Bobby Abreu, RF

4. Alex Rodriguez, 3B

5. Jason Giambi, DH

6. Robinson Cano, 2B

7. Doug Mientkiewicz, 1B

8. Kevin Thompson, LF

9. Wil Nieves, C

 

SP - Jeff Karstens

 

 

Zero excuse to not win today.

[schillingouttheks]

Love the picture of Karstens

 

Feelin better now, Kilo?

 

And also, what the hell is wrong with Posada? Did we ever find that out?

 

Today's mojo...it worked yesterday so:

 

SWEET CHIN MUSIC MOJO!

 

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a191/spiffyspud/sweetchinmusic.jpg

[TGov]

http://us.news2.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/ap/20070421/capt.bc078681c39a4629853a4e0e1d5ec0cf.yankees_red_sox_baseball_maea103.jpg

Nice poster...

 

(I was gonna post this in the April 20 vs NYY thread but it's closed so I posted it here...)

[yankees228]

Wow, I'm not loving the Yankees lineup today, but I understand there is no reason to take any chances with players in April.

[seabeachfred]

Actually didnt Beckett have two good starts against the Yanks at the end of the season?

 

Yes he did E.D. and I was at Yankee Stadium on September 16th of last year to see it. He went six strong innings and gave up only two runs and I believe five or six hits. He was the winner in that game. Cano hit a two run bomb off him in the second inning and after that he was tough as nails. Unfortunately his pitch count was high and he had thrown over 100 pitches when he finished the sixth.

[seabeachfred]

Momentum!

 

I remember in 2005 after the Yanks had won the first game of a three game series against the Red Sox at YS, Derek Jeter said there is no carryover. He was right. Curt Schilling threw an eight inning three hitter against them the next afternoon and the Sox won 9-2. I had to get a Yankee credit card in order to get two free tickets to that game in New York. It was worth it. Yes, I burned the card after the game.

 

We ought to win today. I am not predicting we will; we just ought to. I predicted we would win last night and if it wasn't for a miraculous comeback against the best closer in baseball I would have been dead-red wrong. We stole one yesterday; would be great to go out there and take care of the Yankees from the get-go.

[ORS]

Sit Melk.

[ORS]

Can't walk Abreu.

[a700hitter]

Stop with the slide step. Jeter has lost a step

[a700hitter]

I guess over the middle is not a strike anymore?

[ORS]

Nice hook. Finish him.

[Rdsxmbnt]

no kidding, Abreu has gotten SO many lucky calls these past 2 ABs