Wednesday 4 November 2009

Can Pedro do it again????

Good afternoon everyone,


Is anyone else as excited as I am about tonite?? So, I hate the Yankees, love Pedro Martinez, respsect the hell out of Andy Pettitte and can't wait to watch these to pitching legends go at it in the Bronx to see if there will be a game 7 tomorrow night. It's hard to know what to expect from Pedro- he looked great against the Dodgers and pretty good for the first 6 innings the other night. He has been solid overall this season posting a record of 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA since the Phillies signed him in mid-July. Pettitte, is one of the greatest and most experienced post-season starters ever. Tonight will be his 40th career post-season start and 13th in the world series; and has won 17 of them- the most in baseball history. However, he is pitching on 3 days rest while Pedro is fully rested. Pettitte hasn't pitched on 3 days rest since 2003 and has a mixed record for his career on 3 days rest. In his postseason career, Pettitte has made five starts on three days' rest: three exceptional (World Series Game 2 in 2003 and Game 5 of both the ALCS and World Series in 1996), one mediocre (1997 ALDS Game 5) and one terrible (2000 ALDS Game 5). He's also made 14 career regular season starts on short rest, going 4-6 with a 4.15 ERA. But he's 37; one can also look at CC Sabathia and AJ Burnett who pitched the last 2 games on 3 days rest- both with a noticable velocity drop. Pedro has also has a mixed result against the Yankees in the playoffs over the years- his  ERA of 4.69 (well more than a run and a half higher than his overall regular season mark of 2.93) in seven appearances against them- but would you wanna bet against the best pitcher of this generation in the biggest game of his career???

I can't wait to see if he has enough magic left to force a game 7 tonight!!!
MN

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