Johan Santana had one foot in the Bronx and another in Boston many a time during the bidding war for his rights this past off-season. Instead he went to Shea to play for the Mets for, as ESPN Sports Guy called it, “40 cents on the dollar.” Although the Red Sox are doing fine without Santana on the mound every fifth day, the Yankees Hank Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman are second guessing their decision. Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy were mentioned in every conversation involving the Yankees and the Twins at the time, and as of now have yet to live up to being the guys that weren’t worth trading to get Santana in his prime.
Hughes, who his now on the disabled list until July with a cracked rib that, up until now, was not known about by the Yankees front office, has not acclimated to life in New York in the least. So far, he has been atrocious, compiling a 0-4 record with a 9.00 ERA while Kennedy hasn’t done much better, posting a 0-2 record with a ERA over eight. Though still young, these Yankees youngsters, 21 and 23 respectively, are expected to produce right away by the fans and especially the media. Even though New York has established, dependable starters in Chein Ming Wang and Andy Pettitte, they have struggled at times which doesn’t bode well for the immediate future of the franchise. With the rotation that the Yankees owner and general manager, Steinbrenner and Cashman, put together before the season, they are in need of, if they want to have any chance of a World Series crown this year, 13-15 wins from both Kennedy and Hughes. This will be a tall order considering that, after another loss by Kennedy against the Tigers on May 1st, the two prized pitchers are winless, 0-7, while putting up a combined 8.68 ERA in 13 starts. During Hughes’s six outings he has averaged 3 2/3 innings pitched per start while Kennedy has lasted a similar amount, around 4 innings a start. If Kennedy keeps putting up the kind of numbers that that has been witnessed so far this year, as well as Hughes once he comes back from the injury, the Yankees bullpen will be swamped by early August. The average start of these two starters combined is 3.8, meaning that the bullpen in taking up about 5 innings a game, which leads to fatigue as well as a lack of effectiveness by the relief core.
Wang, 5-0 with a 3.23 ERA and Andy Pettitte, 3-3 with a 3.93 ERA, are going to have to carry their team throughout the year. Think of last year, when they won a combined 34 games. They did what they had to do every fifth day, but it wasn’t known what was going to happen with the other 3 pitchers. The same thing is going on this year, except Pettitte has struggled a bit of late, and Mussina, usually dependable, as been horrid so far (3-3 4.73 ERA) . Again, with this rotation, two good starters aren’t going to carry you into the playoffs, let alone the World Series. With the rut their pitching has been in as well as a depleted offense (Alex Rodriguez and Jorge Posada on the DL, and Robinson Cano hitting .155) results in a 14-16 record, including a recent sweep by the Tigers at Yankees stadium.
On the other side of the rivalry, the Red Sox aren’t struggling with pitching, their troubles are with consistent hitting. Boston is 2-3 in their last 4 games (both wins coming on game winning hits by Kevin Youkilis and Jason Varitek on back-to-back nights) but have gotten solid starting pitching in each of those games. Their usually thunderous offense has been put in the freezer, scoring only 4 runs during that stretch, while being shut-out twice. Their starters during that stretch, Clay Buchholz, Josh Beckett, Daisuke Matsusaka, Jon Lester and Tim Wakefield, have averaged just over 7 1/3 innings per start, yet have gained no wins ( both coming from closer Jonathan Papelbon). The Red Sox have something that the Yankees do not, a line-up that is healthy. Once Mike Lowell and David Ortiz come into form, as well as getting Jacoby Ellsbury back into the skeem of things, this 9-man batting order with be one to be reckoned with.
