Yankees and Redsox and Another Ridiculously Long Game

3 hours 59 minutes for a 5-2 9 inning game. Yep, it's time for Yankees - Red Sox again. Some thoughts on Game 1 of the series.

Photo Credit: google.com/hostednews

*CC Sabathia entered play tonight with a record of 17-3 against teams that were not the Red Sox. Against Boston he was 0-4 this year with a 7.20 ERA and having allowed 33 hits and 10 walks in just 25 innings. While he finally exorcised the demons tonight and beat Boston for the first time this year, he still had Red Sox all over the basepaths. 10 hits, 2 walks and a hit batsman in 6 innings where he was forced to throw a season high 128 pitches. If not for the 10 strikeouts, there's no way he gets out of that game only allowing 2 runs.

*Boston uncharacteristically stranded 16 baserunners, struck out 13 times, and collected just 2 hits in 13 at bats with runners in scoring position. That included leaving the bases loaded in the 2nd and 7th, and leaving runners at second and third in the 4th and 5th. Adrian Gonzalez was an uncharacteristic 0 for 5 with 3 strikeouts.

*Is there a 12-game winner pitching worse than John Lackey right now? In the second year of a 5 year $82.5M deal, Lackey has the worst ERA in the majors for pitchers who have enough innings to qualify for the ERA title. It's by a large margin too. He entered play tonight with an earned run average of 5.98. The next highest is, ironically, the Yankees A.J. Burnett at 5.31. Lackey had actually beaten the Yankees twice this year, but the Sox averaged 9.5 runs per game in those two starts to help offset Lackey's 7.36 ERA.

*The Yankees lineup tonight had sluggers Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher, all with at least home runs this season. So who went deep for New York tonight? That's right. Francisco Cervelli. The same Francisco Cervelli who had accounted for less than 1% of the Yankees 187 home runs this season. Of course Cervelli got hit in his next at bat causing both benches to clear.

*At 3 hours and 59 minutes, this marked the second longest game the Sox and Yankees have played this year. The only game that was longer was a 10 inning affair earlier this month. Of the 13 games between the two teams this year, only one of the games was under 3 hours.