The Yankees have faced plenty of truly great pitchers this season. Roy Halladay, Johan Santana, Jon Lester, James Shields, Justin Verlander, just to name a few. With all due respect, I’d take Cliff Lee over any of them right now.
Lee is no stranger to Yankees and vice versa. He beat them twice in the World Series last year and there’s the constant/free agent trade rumors, and it’s hard not to notice when a guy’s walked four batters in 11 starts and 86.2 IP, which Lee has done this year. If you go back to the trade that send him from Cleveland to Philadelphia, Lee has walked a total of 20 batters in 28 starts and 206.2 IP (playoffs included). A.J. Burnett walked 17 batters this month.
There will be not working of the count tonight, because if the Yankee batters try to get cute and take pitches, they’ll be down 0-2 in the count before they know it. If they see a fastball in the zone, they have to swing at it, plain and simple. The only thing they can do is wait Lee out and get to the bullpen while Phil Hughes tries to contain the league’s worst offense. Sounds easy, but it never is.
Here’s tonight’s lineup…
Jeter, SS
Swisher, RF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Cano, 2B
Posada, DH
Granderson, CF
Huffman, LF
Cervelli, C
And on the mound, St. Phil.
First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm ET, and this primo pitching matchup can be seen on My9. Enjoy the game.
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