Designated Hitters and Big Markets
October 5, 2007 by Geoff Young
Filed under Games Worth Watching, Playoffs
Only American League games on Friday. If you just can’t get enough of the designated hitter experiment (or big-market teams), this is your lucky day!
- Yankees at Indians, 2:00 p.m. PT — Andy Pettitte has the postseason experience (18-6, 4.08 ERA over 34 starts), but Fausto Carmona has been a monster in ‘07. One relative weakness of Carmona is his record against left-handed batters. Granted, most pitchers would kill for a .275/.333/.377 line against anyone, but if you’re looking for something that the Yankees might be able to exploit, this is as good a bet as any. Pettitte, meanwhile, stumbled down the stretch, posting a 5.86 ERA over 35 1/3 innings in September.
- Angels at Red Sox, 5:30 p.m. PT — Kelvim Escobar faces Daisuke Matsuzaka in this one. Escobar was a serious Cy Young contender headed into the season’s final month before bonking hard. Matsuzaka didn’t fare much better toward the end. Both of these guys posted ERAs well north of 6.00 over their final seven starts. It’s a testament to their offense that the Red Sox can afford to run a complete non-entity at shortstop every day. The big question for the Angels is which Escobar shows up today. If it’s the guy who dominated AL batters for the first five months of the season, they should be in good shape. If not…
Happy watching!
