Looking At Tonight's Matchup

Chien-Ming Wang vs. Tim Wakefield isn't exactly the draw of Beckett/Burnett, but it should be an interesting matchup. Both guys throw one pitch which they need to be on or else they're done. Wang has his sinking fastball and Wakefield has his fluttering knuckleball.

Check out Play Index for Wang's numbers vs. the Sox. He has had great success against Lowell, Lugo, Baldelli and Varitek (though 'Tek won't be in the lineup today with Wake pitching). He has had very little success against Pedroia, Youkilis and especially Oritz (.444/.524/.722 line with 2 HRs and 11 RBIs...though those were in past years). Drew, Kotsay and Green are pretty average against Wang. Bay and Kottaras are yet to face him. Wang has struggled in Fenway Park in his career with a 5.11 ERA in 7 starts.

And here is Wakefield against the Yankees. The players who have hit him best are the least patient: Berroa, Melky and Cano. Damon, A-Rod, Jeter and Posada have all had some success with 17 HRs and 43 RBIs between those four. Swisher, Matsui, Teixeira and Gardner have all struggled, though Swisher and Gardner have small sample sizes (13 PAs between them). Wakefield is 10-17 with a 5.03 ERA lifetime against the Yankees plus one famous postseason homer in 2003.

If I was the Yankees, here's how I would handle this matchup: pray for rain. Just kidding. I'd hope Wang can go 6 solid innings and work on making sure the offense can get some runs off of Wakefield.

I was inspired by this CNNSI article in which Joe Posnanski and Bill James talk about the value of walks: One of the most amazing things I've ever seen on a baseball field began with one of those walks. That was Carlos Beltran back in 2003, he was also playing for the Royals, and he was facing Arizona's Matt Mantei, who was throwing serious gas that day. The Royals trailed by one and Beltran fully realized that there was no way he was going to actually get a hit off Mantei, but he had to do something. So he just fouled off pitch after pitch after pitch. And finally, he got the walk, stole second, stole third and scored the tying run on a fly ball that was so shallow the second baseman could have caught it.

That's how I think the Yankees should approach facing Wakefield tonight. Find a way to foul off knuckleballs until they can get a walk and then run wild on the bases. Start Gardner, Melky and Damon in the OF and with those three plus Jeter and A-Rod, give all them the green light and tell them not to stop. Even give Cano the green light. Just keep on running and hope that someone can get a flyball in the air when they get to third. I think it'll drive the Red Sox nuts and anything to drive the Red Sox nuts is great in my book and it'll sure be entertaining to watch.