The big three teams in the American League East were predicted as the monsters of baseball. Headlines and projections stated that the Red Sox, Yankees and Bay Rays were the best three teams in the sport. Those clarion calls were based on pitching. Each team was projected to be deep in pitching with enough pop at the plate to be awesome. We are almost twenty games into the season now and Boston is riding a big win streak. But the other two teams look far from great. And pitching woes have beset all three.
Let's start with the Yankees. Their pitching staff has been a total disaster. Not just a little derailment, the pitching has been a train wreck. They have already had games where they have given up 22 runs and 16 runs. They have an astounding ERA through the first seven innings of a game of 6.79, dead last in the majors. Innings after the sixth haven't been much better where they have an ERA of 5.78. You can't get much worse. Sabathia has had one good game so far in four tries. Burnett gave them three good starts and then got bombed in Boston. Wang has been so bad they don't know what to do with him. Pettitte has been steady but Chamberlain has been all over the place and doesn't seem to have his old swagger.
The Red Sox lost Matsuzaka to the WBC shoulderitis. Beckett hasn't been good. Lester has been up and down. Their best pitcher so far has been an ancient Tim Wakefield. Who saw that coming? The team's ERA through the first six innings is sitting at 4.94. That is currently 21st in the majors. 4.94 from a staff that was supposed to be scary good? hmm.. It is hard to argue with their current win streak. They could run away from the other two. But Toronto has had the best pitching in the division so far and are fifth in the majors in ERA through the first six innings of their games.
Meanwhile, the Bay Rays are fourteenth in the majors in ERA through the first six innings, but 21st in the league from innings seven on. They are hitting well, but their batting average drops off dramatically after the sixth inning. In other words, they are striking early but not doing anything late. If they aren't hitting in the late innings and can't pitch in the late innings, that adds up to a lot of losses and though they have pitched far better than the Yankees, their record isn't nearly as good.
It will be interesting to watch what happens. It's a crazy game and things definitely haven't gone as planned thus far.
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