Thoughts on Tonight's Sox/Yanks game

So, I sit here watching Rivera pitch and I'm a bit befuddled. I've watched him come in so many times and dismantle the greatest of lineups, but something is wrong with him. Michael Kay believes it's mechanical, but Michael Kay is an idiot. I think he's hurt. It would make perfect sense to be completely honest. The guy hasn't been getting the work in and he looks like, well, Armando Benitez with a cutter. He's leaving balls up in the zone and the ones that are down are catching a fat part of the plate. Make no mistake, the Sox have always hit Rivera well by the standards of hitting the best closer in history (mainly because we see the Yankees atleast 19 times a season, 26 in 2004 and 2003). This is different though. I really believe he's hurt. There's just no other explanation for the most dominant closer in major league history to suddenly lose his command.

The game isn't over yet, Myers came in, walked in a run and then gave up a single to add another one to Rivera's era (that's 2 runs in 1/3 if you're keeping a boxscore at home and if you are, I really think you need a more active social life). Actually, Ortiz singled. 11-4 Sox and top half is done with a Manny ground out.

I wanted to talk about Daisuke and honestly, he's been consistent. He'll pitch 6-7 innings, give you 5-6 good innings and have one poor inning where he doesn't necessarily give up hits, but he just tries too hard to strike people out. He kept running the count 3-2 on what seemed like every batter. Rather than trying to nip the corner, run a slider over the inside half of the plate or try to bust them in with a changeup in a fastball count. Once he grasps this and I'm very confident that he'll eventually stop trying to strike everyone, and just try to get the out.

- Paps isn't even coming in and they brought in Pineiro, who isn't pitching that poor this year. He's got a 3.82 in only 8 innings so you can't really gauge him in 8 innings. He's got a 7 run cushion so I'm pretty sure Tito will give him some room.

- 1 out. I pretty much turned this into a running diary and when the game is all over, I'll continue analysis. Melky Cabrera up against Pineiro, who struck out Doug M and then turned around and walked Cabrera on 4 pitches.

- Highlight of the night, the "LET'S GO RED SOX" chant at the top of the 9th. I love those moments. You'll never hear a "LET'S GO YANKEES" chant at Fenway, but you'll hear the Sox chants at the Stadium. Priceless.

- It's pretty much hopeless at this point for the Yankees. 2 outs 11-4 game bottom 9. Even if they string a rally together, Paps is fully warmed up in the bullpen so if they got as run or two, Tito wouldn't hesitate to put him in. Also, listening to Michael Kay is hilarious. You get the feeling that he's already got his keys in his pocket and his jacket on while announcing.

- Michael Kay summed up the 2007 Yankees in one sentence. "How do they snap out of it? I guess you need a good pitching performance from Jeff Karstens tomorrow." Ladies and gentlemen your 2007 New York Yankees!

So, Karstens goes tomorrow again Wakefield who historically pitches pretty well against the Yankees. I really wish we just used a 4 man rotation for the season or just use Pineiro as a starter. I think it's bound to happen. Julian Tavarez CANNOT be our #5. The guy is dreadful. I hope Sunday get's rained out just so he doesn't pitch and they skip his spot in the rotation.

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow I'm pondering a running diary of the NFL Draft as well as the Red Sox. I'm off to watch some Dragon Gate wrestling for the night. This week should be back to normal with plenty of posts so you'll get plenty of opinions from me.