Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 18, 2007
Playoffs Today

Josh Beckett and C.C. Sabathia meet for the second time in the series as the Red Sox face elimination from the playoffs tonight in Cleveland. Sabathia tries to bring back his control in game five. He's walked eleven in 9 1/3 innings in the post season after walking just thirty seven in 241 regular season innings. How is C.C. dealing with this?

Sabathia said he's confident he will have better command tonight. "I went down to the bullpen and worked on trying to stay taller and throw the ball downhill, something I didn't do in Boston, and had a pretty good bullpen," he said. "So I'm looking forward to being my normal self."

The other problem with Sabathia this post season are balls in play. He's struck out eight and hit a batter, so twenty eight batters put the ball in play against C.C. and eleven of those ended up hits. Overall twenty three of forty eight batters earned their way on against Sabathia.

There were some worries about Josh Beckett's back, but he's reported to be fine:

Beckett, 27, threw just 80 pitches in the 10-3 victory in Game 1, leaving after the Red Sox scored two runs in a long bottom of the sixth on a cold, windy night at Fenway Park. The Indians made two pitching changes in that half-inning.

"It was more the conditions of the game," pitching coach John Farrell said. "It was more precautionary than anything. Both in consultation with [Beckett] and Tito, Tito felt it was prudent to remove him after the sixth.

"He was fine. His bullpen two days ago was strong as others during the season. There's no restrictions of any kind going into [tonight]. No issue. This is not an issue."

Red Sox fans hope so. Unlike Sabathia, Beckett hasn't issued a walk in fifteen post-season innings while striking out fifteen. This has allowed him to be very efficient, throwing 188 pitches, just 12.5 per inning. The bullpen becomes less of a worry when you don't need them until the eighth or ninth inning.

Enjoy!


Posted by David Pinto at 11:53 AM | League Championship Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Is it true that Beckett's ex is singing the National Anthem in Cleveland tonight? I read it on ESPN.com. What are your thoughts on this? Does this affect Beckett at all or is he beyond that sort of thing? When did these two kids break up? Was it recent? Was it amicable? What more do we know about this situation?

Posted by: Peter at October 18, 2007 04:33 PM
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