If Frustration Walked Through That Door, He'd Be Wearing Pinstripes

(Photo from Boston.com)

Last night's game in the Bronx resulted in an 11-4 drubbing of the Yanks at the hands of the BoSox, putting the Sox up 4-0 on the season series and giving them a 15-7 record.

The game was a weird one. It was shaping up to be a pitchers' duel in the first three innings; despite the Sox' scoring two in the third, Pettitte looked sharp and Matsuzaka looked great, racking up a few Ks and cruising. In the fourth, the wheels came off for Dice-K, as he walked the first three batters to load the bases. All of a sudden he couldn't find the strike zone with any of his pitches. It looked like he was going to get out of the jam without giving up too much, but several bloop hits gave the Yanks a 4-spot and the lead. He ended up throwing about as many pitches in the 4th as he had in innings 1-3.

The Sox came back blazing in the top of the 5th, as Pettitte followed Matsuzaka's lead and had trouble with location, giving up several walks. The Sox scored 3 and took the lead back, with big help from Youk's 2-run HR. Pettitte couldn't finish the 5th, and Proctor came in to get the final out of the inning.

Matsuzaka settled down and pitched the next two innings well, keeping the Yanks' bats silent. They wouldn't make noise for the rest of the game. Lugo tacked on another run in the 6th with a solo shot (fantastic game for Julio, btw: 3H, 1HR, 3RBI, 1BB - good to see some offense from the kid). The Sox scored again in the 8th, and went to town in the 9th, ravishing a helpless Rivera for 4 runs. Rivera brushed aside J.D. Drew like he was yesterday's news, then left weak cutters over the plate left and right. He got hit hard several times and put the Yanks into a deep hole out of which they could not possibly climb.

Not as outstanding as the offense, but still very important: Timlin came in for an inning of relief in the 7th, followed by Okajima intended to set up Pap. Tito saved him in favor of using Piniero in the 9th, given the Sox' 7-run lead. Oki's one of my new faves. I love watching him pitch. He's got that nice big over-the-top curveball and that split-fingered changeup that drops out of the zone beautifully. (As Remy pointed out, however, he needs to get ahead of hitters to get them to chase his breaking stuff, as his fastball clocks in at a tortoise-like ~87mph). Moving forward, Oki can be a solid set-up man for the Papelbot. Important note: the Sox' bullpen has the lowest ERA in the league. Huge.

Matsuzaka: His stuff is awesome. He's got a million effective pitches, but he's too cautious, even with a lineup like that of the Yanks. He tries to get guys to chase his breaking stuff way too much; he needs to attack the zone more because his stuff is nasty enough to get guys to whiff frequently. He made Cano look absolutely silly at the plate last night. 3 Ks and Robbie had no idea what he was getting on any count. (He also made Mientkiewicz look silly, a decidedly less impressive accomplishment. He seemed incredibly frustrated last night, no?) In the postgame, they put up some interesting numbers: in the 4th inning in his outings thus far is when Dice-K seems to have mini-meltdowns. Is it seeing the heart of the order a second time around? Does he get too comfortable? Is he thinking too much? I don't know. In the postgame interview he said he had some technical stuff to work out. Hopefully he won't be further rattled by all the melodrama surrounding the First Yankees Game, the First Game at Yankees Stadium, etc. I'm very impressed with his stuff thus far, and I think he will be very effective as the season goes on. He's got some adjustments to make, but I like the kid.

Almost everyone had a hit last night (Drew looked horrendous at the plate). I love it when we get production from every part of the order.

Although I cannot state in words how happy I am to see the Yankees struggling like this, I'm going to attempt to look at this as objectively as possible: the Yanks are in a bad, bad way right now. Their pitching is just awful. Their starters have gone past the 6th inning in only 6 games so far this season (this stat is off the top of my head from last night's broadcast; might be slightly off). Their bullpen is on pace to throw a ridiculous number of innings. Torre's already had Pettitte come in for an inning of relief last weekend, and he's got Rivera pitching in all sorts of non-save situations. Their lineup is a monster, an absolute offensive juggernaut. However, although they've scored 124 runs (the most in MLB), they've allowed 117. Contrast this with the Sox' 117:77 ratio. Rivera looked incredibly mortal last night. As Remy pointed out, he's probably not sharp from pitching in odd, non-save situations so much, but still...he's Mariano Rivera. His cutter ain't cutting like it used to. And again, it's early yet, and it's easy to get caught up in the small sample size mania of April - but the Yanks have some significant issues to deal with here.

I've been extremely impressed with the Sox' pitching on the whole. Watching quality pitching might be my favorite part of the game (aside from Papi HRs, a given). And our offense has been doing very well - I was a bit worried, especially with the lackluster starts from our 1-2 punch, but everyone is contributing.

This afternoon at 3:55 you can see the veteran Wakefield (2.08 ERA!) go against the hapless Karstens on FOX, accompanied by Buck and McCarver in the broadcast booth. I am looking forward to watching the game in HD at Benoc's Sports Bar & Grille. Personally, I feel great about this game, because everything's falling into place for the Boston Red Sox.

A weird feeling indeed.