Tonight's Pitching Matchup: Yankees vs. Rangers Game 3

1 win a piece and now we're back to New York for Game 3. This game will feature two veteran lefties who have a chance at swinging the series. Let's take a look at how they match up against the teams they're about to face:

Andy Pettitte vs. the Rangers hitters (including playoffs)

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	GDP
Jeff Francoeur	11	11	6	1	0	1	1	0	1	.545	.545	.909	1.455	0	0	1
Elvis Andrus	9	5	2	1	0	0	1	4	2	.400	.667	.600	1.267	0	0	0
David Murphy	12	11	4	1	0	1	3	1	2	.364	.417	.727	1.144	0	0	0
Vladimir Guerrero	33	31	13	4	0	1	3	2	6	.419	.455	.645	1.100	0	0	0
Jorge Cantu	3	3	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.667	1.000	0	0	0
Josh Hamilton	10	10	3	0	0	1	2	0	2	.300	.300	.600	.900	0	0	0
Bengie Molina	22	22	7	0	0	1	3	0	2	.318	.318	.455	.773	0	0	1
Mike Young	38	31	9	2	0	0	6	5	9	.290	.368	.355	.723	0	2	0
Matt Treanor	3	3	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	.333	.333	.333	.667	0	0	0
Ian Kinsler	15	14	3	1	0	0	1	1	1	.214	.267	.286	.552	0	0	2
Nelson Cruz	15	11	1	0	0	0	1	4	2	.091	.333	.091	.424	0	0	1
Andres Blanco	2	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	1	0	0
Total	173	153	50	11	0	5	21	17	27	.327	.390	.497	.886	1	2	5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/18/2010.

This is not a pretty picture for Yankee fans who are hoping that history will be on their side tonight. It's a good thing that past results are not indicative of future results. Besides Nelson Cruz and Ian Kinsler, most of the Rangers lineup has manhandled Andy Pettitte. Pettitte's one advantage is that he's good at keeping runners close at first so hopefully that will limit the Rangers running tonight. While the individuals have been good against Pettitte, he's had a pretty good success rate against the team. In his one 2010 start, Pettitte went 8 innings in April against the Rangers, giving up only 4 hits and 2 runs, striking out 4 and walking 3. Elvis Andrus and Michael Young were the two Rangers to get to Pettitte that day.

Overall in Pettitte's regular season career he is 11-9 with a 5.24 ERA in 146 innings against the Rangers, striking out 105 and walking 51 while giving up 178 hits, but had much more success against them in the playoffs, pitching Game 2 of the ALDS in 1996, 1998 and 1999 and earning the victory in two of those three games (the 1996 game he got a no decision but the Yankees won regardless). For the Yankees to have success tonight, they will need another good start from Pettitte who went 7 innings of 2 run ball in Game 2 of the ALDS.

Cliff Lee vs. the Yankees hitters (including playoffs)

	PA	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	SH	SF	HBP	GDP
Derek Jeter	49	44	19	5	1	0	6	5	4	.432	.490	.591	1.081	0	0	0	0
Lance Berkman	8	8	3	2	0	0	3	0	0	.375	.375	.625	1.000	0	0	0	0
Nick Swisher	37	30	8	2	0	2	3	5	7	.267	.378	.533	.912	0	1	1	0
Alex Rodriguez	35	30	8	3	0	2	10	4	7	.267	.343	.567	.910	0	1	0	0
Mark Teixeira	41	38	11	6	0	1	6	2	5	.289	.341	.526	.868	0	0	1	1
Curtis Granderson	45	42	12	2	0	1	3	2	3	.286	.333	.405	.738	0	0	1	1
Jorge Posada	38	36	8	3	0	2	6	1	10	.222	.237	.472	.709	0	1	0	3
Marcus Thames	36	36	7	2	0	3	5	0	15	.194	.194	.500	.694	0	0	0	0
Brett Gardner	12	11	3	0	0	0	1	0	2	.273	.273	.273	.545	1	0	0	0
Robinson Cano	35	34	7	1	0	0	1	1	3	.206	.229	.235	.464	0	0	0	0
Austin Kearns	11	11	2	0	0	0	0	0	4	.182	.182	.182	.364	0	0	0	0
A.J. Burnett	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
Francisco Cervelli	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
Greg Golson	3	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000	0	0	0	0
Total	354	327	88	26	1	11	44	20	62	.269	.314	.456	.770	1	3	3	5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 10/18/2010.

One of the things this chart shows is that Cliff Lee has faced the Yankees hitters quite a bit. 354 PAs is a pretty robust sample size for a group of hitters against a pitcher. The top 4 in the Yankee lineup (Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher, Mark Teixeira, and Alex Rodriguez) have actually hit Lee well in the past. So has Lance Berkman, though in a small sample size. Berkman is likely to sit against the lefty in favor of Marcus Thames who while only 7 for 36 against Lee, has 5 extra-base hits among his 7 hits including 3 home runs. That being said, if Jorge Posada and Thames bat back-to-back tonight, that's a lot of strikeout history in a row (25 K in 72 AB). Austin Kearns is likely to remain on the bench tonight since he has had even less success in a small sample size than Brett Gardner--and Kearns seems likely to just be taking up a spot on the bench than actually playing in the American League portion of the playoffs. Lastly, despite being pretty poor against most lefties, Curtis Granderson has held his own against Lee. Overall, Lee is 6-4 with a 4.42 ERA in 12 career regular season starts against the Yankees in 75.1 innings, giving up 80 hits, striking out 57 and walking 22.

Although Lee has had a great season, his incredible control seemed to lessen a bit once he moved to Texas. Overall for the Rangers his ERA was 3.98 and although his SO/BB ratio was still an excellent 8.00, he was a bit more hittable. Lee pitched against the Yankees twice in the World Series last year and was excellent, getting the Phillies only two wins in his two starts, pitching 16 innings total to a 2.81 ERA, giving up only 13 hits, walking 3 and striking out 13. His first game was a complete game, 6-hit, no earned run gem and although the Yankees got 5 earned runs against him in the second start, the Phillies still took that game. In 2010, Lee faced the Yankees three times and was excellent in all three. Throwing a complete game in Yankee Stadium in June, pitching 6.1 innings and striking out 11 in August and then throwing 8 innings of one-run ball in September. So far in the playoffs Lee has had two starts (both ALDS wins), pitched 16 innings, giving up only 2 earned runs and striking out an amazing 21 batters while walking no one.

As Mark Teixeira says to LoHud's Chad Jennings, "everyone's been waiting for it." ESPN's Mark Simon writes, the Yankees (and Andy Pettitte) have beaten the "unbeatable" before in the playoffs. Joe Pawlikowski of River Ave Blues looks at the history of Cliff Lee and the Yankees and Joe does the same for FanGraphs of why Andy Pettitte may struggle against the Rangers.

The Yankees almost acquired Cliff Lee from the Mariners. They're hoping that near miss doesn't mean a near miss at another American League Pennant. The quest for 28 continues tonight.