MLB: Day Fifty-Three
Wednesday night featured a big pitching duel between the New York Yankees’s Andy Pettitte and the Boston Red Sox’s Curt Schilling. Pettitte came into the game with a 2-3 while Schilling sported a 4-1 record. Yankee hitting has let Pettitte down all season. Before this game his ERA was right around 3, yet he still had a losing record.
On Wednesday the Yankees made sure they gave Pettitte all the run support he needed. They scored 3 runs in the 1st inning and 6 runs in the 1st 4 innings. The Yanks went on for an easy 8-3 win. Pettitte earned the win and Schilling took the loss. It certainly wasn’t one of Curt’s better performance.
The Yankees did what they had to do in winning the series 2-1. Now they’ll have a night off and then go up against the Angels. Speaking of the Angels, after they hammered the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night. On Wednesday the Angels nearly made a great comeback to steal the game.
The Tigers came out looking to score a lot of run early and that’s just what they did. The Tigers put up 5 runs in the 1st 3 innings. The Angels then trailed 5-0 and they trailed 6-1 later in the game. But they came back and made it interesting losing the game by a score of 8-7. Magglio Ordonez continued to hit the ball well for the Tigers in this one. He had 2 home runs. On the mound, Chad Durbin (4-1) earned the win while Bartolo Colon (5-1) took his 1st loss of the season.
Over in the National League East, the New York Mets and the Atlanta Braves continued to battle it out. Head-to-head the Braves have been getting the better of the Mets all season. However, in all the other games the Mets fare much better. That’s why the Mets hold a slim lead in the division.
On Wednesday, the Mets won 3-0. Oliver Perez pitched 7 strong innings for the Mets. He gave up just 4 hits. For the Braves, Chuck James allowed 3 runs in 4 and 2/3 innings and he took the loss.
Both of these teams will meet on Thursday to decide who wins the series. Also on Thursday, the Tigers and Angels will play to see who wins their series.
It’s amazing to me how the Yankees and the Red Sox seem to get top-billing in the media even when there are 2 other series going on – one between division leaders and one between the top 2 teams in a division – that are more entertaining and more important. The Yankees have not been good this year and they are 9.5 games behind the Red Sox. Does anyone other than Red Sox and Yankees fans care about this rivalry anymore? Is it even a rivalry if the Yankees are so far back? The media sure thinks so.
