Sports

Saturday, April 21, 2012

COMEBACK THRILLER, 3 STARS, ROTATION WOES, BOWDEN-BYRD

As Phil Rizzuto used to say Holy Cow!  Down 9-0 with 2 outs in the sixth and the Yankees go wild in Boston! Tex hits a solo home run and Swisher hits a Grand Slam and the Yanks are back in it!  When the smoke cleared, the Yankees were, unbelievably, the 15-9 victors in this slugfest with the Sawx.  You don't see ball games like this every day!


The 3 Stars of Yankees-Red Sox Game, Saturday, April 21, 2012

3. Red Sox SP Felix Doubront: 6IP, 4H, 1ER, 3BB, 7K

2. Yankees RF Nick Swisher: 3-6, Double, HR (Grand Slam), 6RBI

1. Yankees 1B Mark Teixeira: 3-6, Double, 2HR, 6RBI


Rotation Woes
While Yankee hitting seems to have caught fire, they're having issues with two of their starters, Phil Hughes and Freddy Garcia. Hughes has an ERA of 6.75 through his first 13.1 innings of 2012, while Garcia's ERA is 9.75 through 12 innings this season. Luckily, they have replacement options for both pitchers even without Michael Pineda for a while.

David Phelps, currently a long reliever out of the Yankee bullpen, could replace one of them almost immediately. Going into Saturday's game against the Red Sox, he had pitched to a 1.08 ERA in 8.1 innings while striking out 9 batters.

Though, the likelihood of Phelps moving to the rotation seems slim, as Joe Girardi said during the game on Saturday that he hasn't considered it at all. That is my one problem with Girardi, the fact that he is so set in the way he ranks players.

Also, Andy Pettitte will be returning in a few weeks to take over for Hughes, assuming he doesn't right his ship in a hurry. The odd man out may be Hughes anyway, as we know that Girardi considers CC Sabathia and Hiroki Kuroda locks in the rotation and Ivan Nova has started the season 3-0.

Bowden for Byrd:
Earlier on Saturday, the Red Sox traded relief pitcher Michael Bowden to the Cubs in exchange for Outfielder Marlon Byrd. The Cubs will send the Red Sox some cash consideration to cover a lot of the $6.5 Million left on Byrd's contract.

Byrd, 34, is basically a player on the decline, as his number of home runs, doubles, and RBIs have declined each year from 2009 through 2011.

Bowden, 25, could make a solid middle reliever for the Cubs over the next few years.

No comments:

Post a Comment