Lineups courtesy of Pete Abe:
YANKEES (97-56)
Jeter SS
Damon LF
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Matsui DH
Posada C
Cano 2B
Swisher RF
Cabrera CF
Pitching: RHP Joba Chamberlain (8-6, 4.73).RED SOX (91-61)
Ellsbury CF
Pedroia 2B
Martinez 1B
Youkilis 3B
Ortiz DH
Bay LF
Drew RF
Varitek C
Gonzalez SS
Pitching: LHP Jon Lester (14-7, 3.33).
The Yankees can clinch the AL East with a sweep, while the Red Sox magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 3. While these games actually do not mean much, tonight’s game probably has greater playoff implications than any of the remaining tilts, as the Yankees try and determine whether Joba Chamberlain can contribute in the playoffs.
Also interesting is the Red Sox lineup, as they continue to play a suboptimal lineup. Their best lineup has Mike Lowell in and Jason Varitek out, yet they refuse to give up on Varitek and keep insisting that he is good defensively, despite copious evidence to the contrary. It will be interesting to see what they do once the postseason starts.
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21 Responses to Game Thread: Red Sox @ Yankees
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TIQ IQ
I think this series is probably has the most importance to Brian Bruney because he will get a chance to pitch in this series and when he does he needs to pitch well in order to have a prayer at the post season roster.
Joba really has a chance to prove something tonight against our rivals and against their best pitcher (in this series anyway) and it should be his first start over 4 innings since “the rules”.
Tek is their captain after all, I mean it would be like if Jeter couldn’t play SS anymore but you still gotta find a way to keep him on the field while he is on the team because it means a lot to him and the players.
Joba looks really good tonight! 93 to the last batter in the first and 94 and 95 in both of the following innings and he seems to be cranking up the velocity in situations that call for it.
WOW with Cano’s stolen base the Yankees now have 4 in two innings (Jeter, Arod (2), Cano)
WOW Joba has the 94/95 heat working, he has a decent curve ball he is dropping early for strikes, he’s mixing the change up in to keep the hitters off the slider and fastball and he has the strike out slider working diving away from righties. If he keeps this up then we could be seeing the Joba rules actually working… I think it also helps this game is against the Red Sox because you can tell he really gets more amped up for big games like this!
Another really impressive part of his game is he has gone back to the way he was pitching right after the all star break and just standing on the rubber ready to go, he isn’t holding up the game at all and he is mowing through the line up.
EDIT: Alex has both RBI in this game with that massive 2 run HR!
I meant both RBI hits he has 3 RBI in this game… the Edit button time was running out so I rushed and ended up writing both RBI instead of both RBI hits.
Man the Yankees bats and speed are really eating Lester alive here, he has decent stuff but the Yankees just seem to be placing the hits in the right spots to get through.
Jon Lester just got plunked right in the middle side of his knee cap and he could be done for this game and maybe even a couple starts after this… You never want to see something like this even on a rival like the Red Sox but from a pure baseball stand point this really weakens their rotation but I hope he is OK!
For the rest of this game it doesn’t look good for the Red Sox since Lester is out, they really have no long men who you would want to go long effectively and the bases are still loaded with only 1 out in a 4-0 game.
EDIT: Looks like Hunter Jones will be the replacement.
This is the second game this year that Joba has pitched against the Red sox that he has had at least a 30 minute wait in between pitching because of the offense cranking out runs, the last time was against Smoltz when he came out after the rest a little shaky. Lets see how he responds this time out with a 5-0 lead but a 30 minute wait in between pitches.
EDIT: Well there goes the no-no, the perfect and the shut out all on one swing. He doesn’t have the same velocity as before the break.
Looks like he’ll have another long wait. This isn’t even a rally yet, Jones is just slow.
Yankees are fouling off some good pitches as well, I mean Lester was at 78 pitches when he was injured.
I had a feeling he should have started out V-Mart with a curve ball but it looks like after the HR he started getting the velocity going back up (hit 94 and 95 against Youk) and his control started coming back and he got Ortiz to ground back to him with a first pitch curve ball.
Lester X-Rays negative. Good.
Yeah I was kind of worried he was going to have his knee torn up, I don’t want to face him in the playoffs but I don’t think any of us want him out of the game that way.
Seems like the Red Sox just give up on any game that they end up trailing in by 4 runs or more early because why else would you bring in Bowden and Jones when they won’t be on the post season roster.
Joba’s slider seems to be the pitch that is effected the most by time off in the dug out more than any other.
EDIT: and with two hits to start the inning it may have started to fall for Joba, he hasn’t pitched into the 4th so far since the rules so here is where you want to look for any problems.
EDIT: He really has a look of intensity on his face right now and his fastball is showing it (94 and 95) and with that strike out he is one out away from getting out of trouble with out any runs scoring.
EDIT: Great Job by Chamberlain getting out of that jam and using the power slider and fastball to do so.
Joba just issued his first walk here in the 6th so that is another very encouraging sign. Joba has a real hard slider tonight that is anywhere from 84 all the way up to 89 and he has been able to throw the slider for a strike tonight which has really been an issue for him this year.
If Posada had a good throw there he would have gotten Pedroia out.
77 pitches, this is likely his last inning. Girardi said 90ish.
A walk and 2 HRs have lead to the three scores by the Red Sox here tonight but even so you still have to be impressed with the 6 innings Joba has thrown, he got through it with 86 pitches and he pitched really well with all 4 of his pitches. He mixed speed, he went in and out and for his first game going over 4 innings in quite some time he was really effective and threw hard all the way to the end. This really gives you hope and it has to give him a lot of confidence going into his last regular season start of the year next week against the Royals, if he uses his pitches like this next week I believe we have our 4th starter for the playoffs locked up and Gaudin can be a bull pen piece if anything.
I thought that bomb from Tex was gone for sure! He picked a bad part of the park to pick on with that one because he hit a monster shot, good job by Damon reading it and advancing and not taking for granted it would be a HR.
Alex Rodriguez looks really good tonight and he has for a while, looks like he isn’t putting as much pressure on himself as before and hopefully he will keep it up into the playoffs.
Arod now has 93 RBI on the season with a .288 batting average after missing a month of the season with hip surgery.
It is high, it is far, it is CAUGHT! Sterling on the radio drives me nuts sometimes.
Yeah but that one tricked pretty everyone watching it though, even I screamed out gone on that one but it just held up.
EDIT: Alex’s hip must be feeling good because he is really running the bases well!
7-3 Yankees
God Johnny’s defense is just god awful! How do you let a ball get through your legs in LF?
IMO if Marte makes the post season roster his biggest role in Girardi’s mind has to be Ortiz.