Monday, April 28, 2008

Games 23 and 24

Game 23:
A lone rough inning
Doomed Ian Kennedy's start
Offense still struggling

Game 24:
Wang was tremendous
Erases playoff demons
Melkman delivers

It was an interesting weekend of games. On Saturday, Ian Kennedy labored through a terrible 2nd inning, but was otherwise pretty good. I still think he has the kind of stuff to succeed in the majors, but right now he's really nibbling instead of attacking hitters. I think he's reading the papers and letting the mediots get in his head, despite the fact that they have a total of three braincells between them.

Yesterday's game was a candidate for game of the year. Both Wang and Sabathia were fantastic, with CC's mistake to Melky the difference (the big lefty seems to be over those early struggles though - 19 k's his last two games). Wang pitched one of the best games I've ever seen from him, deftly mixing in his slider and splitter/change to keep hitters off balance. He finished with 9 k's, 2 BB, and 4 hits allowed, all of which were to lead off innings. If he can keep pitching like this, he may yet win the Cy Young award.

Following Wang were Joba and Mo, who were equally as nasty. Chamberlain struck out 2 in his inning, including Travis Hafner on a 98 mph fastball on the black to end it. Rivera breezed through the 9th on 11 pitches, freezing Peralta with a cutter on the black for the final out. For those scoring at home, Mo now has 10 scoreless innings to start the year, a welcome change from his early season struggles the last few years.

The Yanks have one more in Cleveland today, with Moose squaring off against Aaron Laffey. Hopefully this is the one that gets the offense rolling because, for all the talk about the pitching, the offense has been pretty terrible to this point.

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