Sabathia's early season struggles are nothing of a surprise. With nearly no exception, Sabathia's ERA and strikeout to walk ratio have decreased as the season progresses every year he has been a big-league pitcher. This is not uncommon, most players either get off to a great start and go cold or the other one around. The New York Yankees have been very happy with Sabathia's trends of progress and will be looking forward to him continuing to step in the right definition as the season continues.
Of Sabathia's last 3 starts, 2 of them have been against Baltimore and the other was against Cleveland. And even though he is 2-0 in those three games, Sabathia has given up a total of 10 runs in 20 innings pitched. However, he has gotten through 7 innings twice which is the staple of his career. Sabathia has saved hundreds of innings off of his bullpen pitchers which was the primary reason he was given the Cy Young Award over the impressive season performance from Josh Beckett.
What makes this matchup the most intriguing is Doc's visit to the Bronx without donning a Jays jersey. Of course, this is a rematch of last season's world series when the pinstripes won in 6 games and Halladay was forced to watch from afar as his anticipated trade did not go through until the off-season.
In the Bronx (both old and new Yankee Stadiums), Halladay has been nothing short of stellar. He has posted a record of 8-4 with a 3.18 ERA and is on record saying, "You can go in with different intensity against different teams." At that has what the former AL-East stud has done his entire career which is why is National League transitional success has not been surprising to anyone.
The Phillies have only won 1 series out of their last 9. Take a moment to allow that to soak which will most likely be the longest you have thought about the Phils in months. They are now 3.5 games behind the Atlanta Braves and continue to fall as Atlanta took 2 of 3 games in Minnesota and the Phils lost 2 of 3 games in Boston.
Prediction: Yankees (2-1)
The responsibility of a starting pitcher in major league baseball is incomparable to any other athlete in any other sport. While hockey goaltenders are important to the game, the starting pitcher of a major league club is who decides the outcome of the game 9 out of 10 times. It becomes difficult to predict the winners and losers when both teams are starting former Cy Young winners who continue to pitch efficiently.
The Phillies can feel their season rapidly slipping away as the Braves continue to succeed. However, they are a mere .500 on the road (16-16) while the Yankees proudly own a .759 winning percentage when they play in the Bronx. While Roy Halladay could potentially pitch 9 shutout innings, the Phillies must find a way to score runs which they have been entirely unable to do. They have only scored more than 3 runs in 4 out of their last 10 games and the team that was 4th in the entire league last season in runs is now sitting quietly in 20th.
No comments:
Post a Comment