Are the Yankees well-armed?
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- October
- 3
Are you watching these playoffs so far? From the wild-card tiebreaker on Monday through the first two games today—Rockies-Phillies and Red Sox-Angels—three games have been decided by pitching, either great starting pitching or great relief pitching, or a combination thereof.
Now that’s no secret or surprise. We’ve known forever that pitching wins in the postseason.
Which brings us to tomorrow night in Cleveland, or more actually Sunday and Monday in the Bronx.
With Wang and Pettitte going in Games 1 and 2, and with Joba Chamberlain and Mo Rivera rested, the Yankees should be fine, although they will be facing some pretty good pitchers themselves.
I think they need to be concerned about Games 3 and 4 when they give the ball to Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina. With their pitch-count tendencies, the Yankees will have to go into their bullpen earlier in those games, and that means their demons will have to be overcome. It means they will have to get innings out of somebody other than Chamberlain and Rivera, and that usually means trouble.
The Yankees might simply outslug the Indians in those games and manage to win. But I keep thinking about last October and waiting for the sluggers to bail out mediocre-to-lousy pitchers, and I keep thinking the Yankees better come home up 2-0.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 9:30 pm by Carp.
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