Count me amongst those that think both the local and national media, as well as the fans of both teams, place a little too much emphasis on Yankee-Red Sox games. Of course, that's a convenient thing to say right now when my team is winless against the Sox during the Obama Administration. Even I'll admit that at this point, it's getting very frustrating to lose to them game after game.
Despite all that, the teams are still tied for first in the AL East, but what hurts is that if the Yankees had managed a split through these first six games, they would currently hold a nice six game lead in the division.
Tonight we have Wang vs. Wakefield. Neither pitcher has good career numbers against tonight's opponent. In 14 games (13 GS) Wang is 6-5 against the Sox with a 4.91 ERA and a WHIP of 1.55. He's allowed more BB than K and the Sox have hit .281/.357/.417 off him. Meanwhile, in 49 G (32 GS) Wakefield is 10-17 with a 5.03 ERA and a WHIP of 1.42. Neither pitcher has faced tonight's opponent yet in 2009.
Tonight's theme is "how many more times?" How many more times will these teams have to play this year before the Yankees notch a "W"? How many more times will the Sox treat the Yankees the way they want to? How many more times will CMW take to the hill before he returns to his pre-foot injury form? How many more times will the Yankees play before we see Phil Hughes log some needed innings? I sure hope the answers are zero, zero, zero, and not that many. But if we see Hughes early tonight, things don't look too good for the first three questions.
As an aside, I would have much preferred to go with go with original Howlin' Wolf song "How Many More Years". However, in the interests of framing both the Yankees problems against the Sox and CMW's problems on the mound as being more temporal, I thought it much better to go with "times" than "years". So in this one instance, I'm happy the boys from Led Zeppelin decided to rip off the blues heroes they supposedly admired.
How many more times, treat me the way you want to do
How many more times, treat me the way you want to do
When I give you all my love, please, please be true
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