Good Omens for Yanks

This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

The New York Sun

No matter the poundings endured by Pedro Martinez and Derek Lowe the last two days, this weekend’s Yankees-Red Sox set proved frustratingly little about where the two teams stand in comparison to one another. Both teams got some unexpected and pleasant surprises; the Red Sox had some nasty ones as well. Yankee partisans should be wary of getting too excited, though; if the two teams meet in October, it will be with a clean slate.


On the Red Sox’ side, the catastrophe was Derek Lowe’s Saturday meltdown. His one-inning, seven-run shelling probably cost the pending free agent millions of dollars; it might also cost him a spot in the playoff rotation. Anyone can have a bad game, but Lowe seemingly blacked out on the mound, throwing to the wrong base on a comebacker in the first inning and flailing about like a bird in the second.


Coming into the season, the Sox were counting on Curt Schilling and Martinez to serve as a devastating one-two punch, and hoping that either Lowe or Byung-Hyun Kim would cement himself as a viable third option. Kim has pitched 11 1 /3 innings all year, and Lowe doesn’t look like a good option for a key game. Panic in Boston might, on this count, be justified.


What did go well for the Sox might solve that problem. I suggested last week that Bronson Arroyo might pitch very well in Friday night’s game because of how much better he is on the road and at night, and he delivered a solid performance, going six innings and allowing just one run. If the Red Sox manipulate their rotation properly, Arroyo might do very well as a no. 3 starter in the playoffs.


The Friday comeback against Mariano Rivera was important for the Red Sox as well, though it isn’t going to bother or affect Rivera one bit. While the importance of confidence and momentum in sports are sometimes overstated, the Red Sox stand to gain a small, yet crucial, edge in knowing they’ve twice come back against the game’s best reliever.


Finally, I’d class the beating given Pedro yesterday with the comeback against Rivera: good for the Yankees, but not really bad for the Sox. Under a stiff workload and less rest between starts than usual this year, Martinez has been prone to the occasional game where he gets completely pasted. From the first inning, he seemed to have little on his fastball and poor command of his breaking pitches, but he is the least of the Red Sox’ concerns.


On the Yankees’ side, yesterday’s win was all positive. The offense was working perfectly for the second straight day, but the far more important element was Mike Mussina’s brilliant performance, his third excellent start in a row. Every one of his pitches was crisp, and he looked to be putting the ball exactly where he wanted it, which has been his main problem this season.


If Mussina can maintain this level – and there’s no reason to think that he hasn’t worked through the nagging injuries that have bothered him this year – he and Orlando Hernandez can match Schilling and Martinez, Johan Santana and Brad Radke, or any other 1-2 punch the Yankees are liable to face in the playoffs.


Allowing the Red Sox to come back in the ninth inning on Friday can be entirely written off. First, Hernandez only pitched three innings in the game, which might have taken on an entirely different complexion had the long rain delay not forced El Duque to come out; second, as noted, Rivera remains Rivera and he will probably remain so until he retires.


Saturday’s game might have been the most important for the Yankees. I, along with virtually everyone else, fully expected Jon Lieber to pitch about as well as Lowe did in that game.


Pitching six innings of no-hit ball boosted Lieber’s stock immensely, and made him suddenly seem a viable playoff option should Kevin Brown fail to return in time to take his spot in the rotation. This is a dangerous illusion: No matter how he pitched on Saturday, Lieber is still Lieber. If Joe Torre is tricked into feeling any confidence with him on the mound, it could prove devastating to the Yankees’ post-season hopes.


Still, Jon Lieber pitching like an ace being the biggest of the Yankees’ problems just shows how good they are right now. On Friday I wrote that a danger of this series was that the back end of the Yankee bullpen might come in for a great deal of work; instead it was rested.


Two starting pitchers showed that they’re working at the top of their game. Pedro Martinez was vanquished. The games only start counting two weeks from now, but this weekend went as well for the Yankees as anyone could have hoped.


The New York Sun

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