They say the best way to get over an ex is to find someone else. In the same manner, the best way to forget about a loss is to see a win the next day. Hell, even watching a new game is enough to quell the feelings from last night’s game. After all, it hurt a lot more emotionally than it did in the reality of baseball.
Before we get into the highly-anticipated pitching matchup, let’s catch up with the injuries. Cody Ransom has been placed on the 60-day DL with a quad injury. This opens up a 40-man spot. Brian Bruney has been placed on the 15-day DL with a “strained flexor mass” in his elbow. It’s a muscle injury, rather than a ligament one, so that’s decent news. He’ll start therapy on the elbow with hopes that he’ll start throwing again next week. We can be optimistic now, but remember that Ben Sheets was optimistic all winter about his elbow, which had sustained an injury to the flexor tendon. Hopefully Bruney’s isn’t nearly as severe. Finally, Chien-Ming Wang is on the DL with “weakness in his hips.” You can see the news on Wang and Ransom here, while the bit on Bruney is here.
Onto the replacements. David Robertson is up for Chien-Ming Wang. Angel Berroa is up for Cody Ransom. They had to add the former to the 40-man roster, but didn’t have to make a move since Ransom was placed on the 60-day, thus temporarily removing him from the active 40-man. Mark Melancon has been recalled to replace Bruney in the bullpen. To clear 40-man room for him, they have straight-up released Humberto Sanchez. Since he was not designated for assignment, which would expose him to waivers, my guess is that he’ll sign a minor league deal to return to the Yanks and continue to work back to health. We’ll see on that, though.
Finally, onto the pitching match ups. In his career A.J. Burnett has tossed 56.1 innings against the Red Sox to a 2.56 ERA, striking out 53 to 21 walks, and allowing just 44 hits. Last year he pitched 27.2 innings against them, allowing nine runs (eight earned) and 21 hits while striking out 24 to 13 walks. The walks won’t help out all that much, but if Burnett can keep the Sox to two runs over seven innings that would be superb.
The Yanks’ drubbing of Josh Beckett in 2006 really hurt his career numbers vs. the team. His ERA stands at 5.33 in 74.1 innings pitched. His strikeouts are relatively low against the Yanks: 59 in those 74.1 innings, against 29 walks. Like Burnett against the Sox, Beckett pitched 27.2 innings against the Yanks last year. He allowed 10 runs in those innings, striking out 20 to 5 walks. Over the past few years, as opposed to 2006, Beckett has come out of the gates throwing strikes, hence his low walk total against them last year.
Lineup:
1. Derek Jeter, SS
2. Johnny Damon, LF
3. Mark Teixeira, 1B
4. Nick Swisher, RF
5. Robinson Cano, 2B
6. Jorge Posada, C
7. Hideki Matsui, DH
8. Angel Berroa, 3B
9. Brett Gardner, CF
And on the mount, number thirty-four, A.J. Burnett.
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