Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Rangers Game 6

For the past history of tonight's match-up between Phil Hughes and Colby Lewis, check out the post from Game 2. Of course, what happened in Game 2 isn't included in those numbers, but they should give you a good sense of the two pitchers' history with the Yankees. As you may remember from Game 2, Lewis pitched pretty well (only two runs given up despite 6 hits and 3 walks in 5.2 innings) and Hughes got bombed. ESPN's Katie Sharp goes into greater detail on the match-up and figures out that the breaking point between the two performances occurred at two-strikes.

Phil Hughes looks focused as tonight as he tries to stave off elimination (LoHud)

In Game 2, Hughes struggled to finish off hitters when getting to two strikes, as the Rangers went 5-for-11 (.455), including four extra base hits, in two-strike counts. Hughes also left his pitches up, and the Rangers capitalized, going 6-for-8 (.750) on pitches in the upper third of the zone and above. 

This has been an issue for many of the Yankee pitchers. They have--for the most part--been OK at getting ahead in the count, but the Rangers have been able to foul off a lot of two-strike pitches. CC Sabathia had this trouble with the Rangers on Wednesday as many of the hitters battled him even with two strikes. Hughes' key tonight is finding a way to put the Rangers hitters away.

One key for Lewis in Game 2 was his use of the curveball as an out pitch, as the Yankees went 0-for-4 against the hook. Lewis was also effective in getting Yankee hitters to chase pitches, with four of his six total strikeouts coming on pitches out of the zone.

Again, the issues for the Yankees came with two strikes. It will be even more important to resist the temptation to chase pitches tonight, as free-swinging Marcus Thames will be replacing Mark Teixeira's bat in the line-up and another free-swinger--Robinson Cano--will be moving up in the lineup to the third slot. The Yankees ability to get hits off of Lewis with runners on and to get to the Rangers bullpen early will be a key to this game.

The last note from ESPN's Buster Olney: "CC Sabathia was better in Game 5 than he was in Game 1 because he had better command and because he controlled the ball-strike counts better. Phil Hughes faces the same challenge: If he struggles to control his fastball and breaking ball, as he did in his Game 2 start, and leaves his pitches up in the zone, then the Yankees almost certainly will lose. If Hughes has better command, then they could get an opportunity that was their nightmare scenario as this series began: facing Cliff Lee in a Game 7."

A few links before the weekend:

• Rebecca from This Purist Bleeds Pinstripes has Game 5 of the ALCS as told via visual media and Moshe Mandel at TYU shows us how much CC bended but didn't break in Game 5
• It seems that the guy who ran onto the field during Game 3 of the ALCS was specifically targeting Alex Rodriguez (no, that man was not Wallace Matthews)
• ESPN says that Major League Baseball is mulling a concussion DL--a wonderful idea that should be copied by other pro leagues. The New York Times Alan Schwarz should win many awards for the work he's done on concussion education in the Times.
• I did not know that Kerry Wood was mulling retirement in 2007, but the Wall Street Journal's Brian Costa tells us all about it.