Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 12, 2004
Playoffs Today

The Red Sox and Yankees get underway in the Bronx tonight, sometime after 8 PM EDT. Curt Schilling goes head-to-head with Mike Mussina in game 1. Mike Mussina has been the Yankees sacrificial lamb of late, going up against the opposition's best starter, pitching well but not well enough (game 1 of the LDS vs. Santana, for example).

Schilling did not start for the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium this year, although he did make three starts against New York. What the Yankees have been able to do against Curt this year is draw a walk. He's given up 10 in 18 2/3 innings against NY (he gave 25 in 208 innings to the rest of his opponents). So even though he's 2-0 vs. NY, he has a 4.82 ERA.

Mike Mussina has a very good history against the Red Sox big three of Ramirez, Damon and Ortiz. Ramirez has hit 5 HR off the Moose, but in 75 AB. Mussina has held him to a .253 OBA and a .459 slugging percentage over his career. The Yankees will be happy to have Manny produce like that for the series.

A matchup to watch, of course, is A-Rod vs. Varitek. ("F-you, f-you mother f-er, you want a piece of me?" may be the quote of the year.) Alex hit well against Boston, but nothing out of this world. His .412 OBA was impressive; his .486 slugging pct. less so. Jason, however, was absolutely shut down by Yankees pitching, hitting just .169 with four walks.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 02:34 PM | League Championship Series | TrackBack (1)
Comments

Hey Fellow Red Sox Fans! Love the site!

If you’re like me you will do anything and everything it takes to help the Sox beat the Yankees and bring home a long over due world series pennant this year!

This is the year! We, the members of Red Sox Nation and loyal fans through all these years are not going to let anything stand in our way. Go Sox!

I just found this cool site online where you can help the sox reverse the curse and help fight another curse, Lou Gehrig’s disease http://www.reversethecurse.org Check it out! They have a “Karma” scoreboard; the Sox are winning 50 to 1.

As I’m sure you know Curt Schilling is a huge supporter of the fight against ALS and so is Mike Timlin, who lost his mother to ALS a couple years ago.

Spread the word! Send the Sox good Karma, give a buck or two and send the Sox to the series!

Posted by: Rob at October 12, 2004 03:13 PM

It won't help. Pretending you can manipulate your karma /in itself/ reduces your karma. Sounds like the Sox are going down...

Posted by: TomP at October 12, 2004 04:12 PM

No, the quote of the year is "We don't throw at .260 hitters."

I don't care if it's apocryphal, it's just too hilarious.

Now click my link, dammit.

Posted by: Hudson at October 12, 2004 06:25 PM

I don't know... I like David's nomination for quote of the year, but I'm partial to Juan Rincon's after the Twins were eliminated over the weekend - "No one wants to be in my pants right now."

I'm sure something was lost in the translation or the frustration of the moment, but just taking it on the surface, I still laugh every time I read that.

Posted by: Mike at October 12, 2004 07:33 PM

Mike

Do you have a link for that quote?

Larry

Posted by: Larry Macdonald at October 12, 2004 07:50 PM

Hey David, did Fox just steal their opening of Yankees - Red Sox from you?

Posted by: Robert at October 12, 2004 08:02 PM

Yeah - follow this - it's at the end of the article...

http://www.startribune.com/stories/503/5024795.html

Hey - what happens tomorrow night? It looks like both games are supposed to be on at the same time. Does that mean we'll all only get to see one or the other with cut ins?

Posted by: Mike at October 12, 2004 08:16 PM

Oops - looks like you have to register for this site now. Up until a few minutes ago I was able to get to the page without having registered.

Posted by: Mike at October 12, 2004 08:19 PM