Game 11: End Of The Line

The Yankees have completed three series this season, taking them all by virtue of winning the rubber game. Today, A.J. Burnett had the opportunity to deliver the club's fourth series win of 2010 without having it go down to the final game.

After a fair but unimpressive start at Fenway Park in the season's second game, Burnett had a very good outing in last Sunday's series finale in St. Petersburg. He surrendered two runs in the first, then shut the Rays down over his final six innings of work, scattering six hits and three walks over the afternoon. Perhaps the only blemish on his line that day was an uncharacteristic strikeout total, with just one K on the afternoon.

In his career, Burnett has made on relief appearance and eight starts against the Rangers, with three of the starts coming during his first year in pinstripes. Burnett pitched quite well against Texas last year, posting a 2.84 ERA and fanning 27 while allowing just 23 baserunners in 19 innings of work. His first two outings against them came in back-to-back starts on May 27th and June 2nd. In the latter, Burnett buzzed the tower of Nelson Cruz, after the Rangers had taken some liberties with Mark Teixeira earlier in the game. Though Burnett was not ejected from the game, it did earn him a suspension, which was later reduced to the point that he didn't miss a single start. His final 2009 start against the Rangers came on August 27th. He got saddled with the loss in that one, but did manage to whiff a season high twelve batters over six innings of work.

Opposing Burnett will be Scott Feldman. Armed with a new contract extension that could pay him just over $20M through 2013, the 6'7" righty has been impressive in his two outings thus far this season, allowing just twelve hits, one walk, and four earned runs through fourteen innings of work.

Feldman has four career appearances against the Yankees, three of them starts. In them, he's 2-1 with a 3.72 ERA and 1.45 WHIP over 19.1 IP, and has allowed four home runs. He picked up the victory in his only 2009 start against the Yankees, June 3rd at the Stadium, allowing eight baserunners and two runs over six and a third.

The forecast isn't great for today, with temps in the mid-fifties, breezes at 10 to 15 MPH, and the sun may not shine, but it's all right, at the very least the chance of rain is much less than it was last night. After playing a rain shortened game last night, the first for the Yankees since September 2006, the two clubs will look today's game right to the end of the line.

Well it's all right, riding around in the breeze
Well it's all right, if you live the life you please
Well it's all right, even if the sun don't shine
Well it's all right, we're going to the end of the line

-Lineups-

Yankees:
Not much to see here folks. The "A" line up returns after a couple games with a few subs scattered in the order. Posada is back behind the plate to catch Burnett for the third time in as many starts this year. Marcus Thames grabs some pine for the first time since Wednesday; Mark Teixeira continues to look to snap out of his April funk.

Jeter SS
Johnson DH
Teixeira 1B
Rodriguez 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Granderson CF
Swisher RF
Gardner LF

Rangers:

Julio Borbon, CF
Michael Young, 3B
Josh Hamilton, LF
Vladimir Guerrero, DH
Nelson Cruz, RF
Chris Davis, 1B
Joaquin Arias, 2B
Taylor Teagarden, C
Elvis Andrus, SS

Game 53: Badlands

Working in the fields, 'til you get your back burned
Working 'neath the wheel, 'til you get your facts learned
Baby I got my facts learned real good right now.
You better get it straight darling:
Poor man wanna be rich; Rich man wanna be king
And a king ain't satisfied 'til he rules everything.
I want to go out tonight, want to find out what I got.

I had been thinking about choosing "Born in the U.S.A." as tonight's song to commemorate my return to the States, but then I got to thinking that I didn't want to misinterpret the song's meaning as badly as Ronnie Reagan did during his 1984 re-election campaign. That, and I didn't want my preview tonight to be as self-indulgent as Jay's was last night.

So, with Springseen in mind, having had a Springsteen cover band play the wedding reception I attended Saturday, and with Andy Pettitte taking the mound for the first time since back pain forced him to a premature exit in his start last Friday, we turn to one of my favorite Springsteen songs: Badlands.

Now this is not yet another blog post bashing the new Stadium and its issues. In fact, it has nothing to do with the Stadium itself. Rather, it's a brief look at Andy Pettitte. Early in his career, a knock on Pettitte was that he was constantly battling arm problems and that he often had difficulty discerning the difference between pitching in pain and pitching injured.

Pettitte has long outgrown that reputation, twice (at least) with the aid of human growth hormone, but more due to better conditioning and the savvy that comes with being a 15 year veteran. He spent much of the second half last year pitching through shoulder pain knowing that the team was already decimated by injuries, thin on pitching, and in a (losing) fight for its post-season life. Pettitte pitched poorly during this stretch: after going 10-7 with a 4.03 ERA and a 1.34 WHIP in the first half, he struggled to the tune of 4-7, 5.35, 1.53 in the second half.

It was an unfortunate turn for Pettitte, finishing off his contract in such a poor fashion and raising questions again about his health and durability. After making $16M in both of the last two seasons, he held out for much of the off-season, hoping for a deal similar in value. Pettitte however overestimated both the market and his own worth at this advanced stage of his career, instead settling in late January for a $5.5M base salary with incentives for every ten innings pitched from 150 to 210 as well as roster bonuses for days on the active roster. The incentives can bring the contract value to a much more palatable $12M.

So, as Ben at RAB wisely pointed out Saturday, it comes as no surprise that Pettitte has been adamant since last Friday that he would be starting tonight. You can say that his back may be burned, but he's got his facts learned: he knows what his body can and can't do at this point in his career and he knows what's on the line financially. This rich man wants to be king, or at least richer, and tonight he'll go out to the mound and find out what he's got.

In other news, Chien-Ming Wang, who almost assuredly would have started tonight had Pettitte not been able to go, will now return to the starting rotation tomorrow. CC Sabathia will be pushed back to Friday, and it appears that Phil Hughes is now ticketed for the bullpen. Rest assured we'll be talking about this more over the next day or so.

Opposing Pettitte tonight will be Scott Bizarro Kramer. I have some misplaced hatred towards Bizarro Kramer. He baffled them in this game last year, spoiling Brett Gardner's Major League debut. I then proceeded to get tagged with a $397 speeding ticket driving home from the game. I blame Feldman. Go get him fellas.