Kind of hard to believe the Yankees are being outhomered 10-5 by the Phillies in the World Series (well technically I suppose it’s more like a three-way tie between the Yanks, Phils and Chase Utley), although given that the Yanks haven’t clubbed a long ball in two games and the fact that the Phillies are just as powerful as New York I suppose it’s not that surprising.
Still, if any team was ever due to start knocking the ball out of the park, it’s the Yankees, as they only had one stretch in the regular season in which they went three straight games without a home run: a three-game losing streak to Florida and Atlanta back in June. Of course, they also just did it about a week and a half ago, over the course of Games 5 and 6 of the ALCS and Game 1 of the World Series, so maybe I’m reading too much into this.
Game 6 features a match-up of Pedro Martinez for the Phillies and Andy Pettitte for the Yankees on three days’ rest for the first time in several seasons. There’s a bit more concern about how Pettitte will fare on short rest after A.J. Burnett crapped the bed in Game 5, but I have faith that Andy can pitch a reasonable game — I don’t think 6 innings of three-run ball is out of the question.
After dumping on Pedro before Game 2, I’m going to be a bit more cautious this time and expect him to turn in another pretty good outing, though I also wouldn’t be surprised to see the Yanks knock him around a bit more. The bats have looked pretty good the last few games — save Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira — and the team is way overdue to knock a few out of the park.
Robinson Cano is obviously having a very bad postseason, and as SG shows us, has actually been the least valuable of all 50 men playing in the World Series, including pitchers. That’s beyond horrendous. While Teixeira has continued to struggle, he has actually been more valuable than Ryan Howard.
The Yankees were playing at a mild disadvantage the last three games, what with having to punt the number nine spot, and still managed to win two of three. Moving back to their home park should do wonders for this lineup, especially getting to reinstall Hideki Matsui in the five hole.
We’re all ready for you to win this boys, so let’s make sure we take care of business and end this thing tonight. LET’S GO YAN-KEES!
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One Response to Game 6 Preview | World Series 2009 | Phillies at Yankees, Wednesday, November 4, 2009
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TIQ IQ
They need to lock this down tonight and I have a pretty good feeling about it. The writing is on the wall…However, not really looking forward to hearing BEP's – I Gotta Feeling 16,000 times tonight…unless of course they take the crown.