The Yankees are off to Chicago today for the start of a 4 game set against the White Sox. This begins the start of a 7 game road trip for the Yankees who will actually play 21 of 30 games on the road during the month of August. This season the Yankees are only 27-20 on the road compared to 37-22 at home. The Yankees just took 3 of 4 games from the Orioles this past weekend in the Bronx, and are looking to try and gain some momentum before they travel to Boston for this weekend’s series in Fenway.
Although it looks like the White Sox have given up for the post-season as they recently traded starter Edwin Jackson, they are not an easy opponent and at the very least will give the Yankees a challenge. They are only 4 games behind Detroit for the AL Central but they are 2 games under .500 although they have won 4 of the last 6 series they have played. This past weekend Boston took 2 of 3 from Chicago in Fenway as the White Sox offense came up short in Sunday’s matchup ultimately leaving 12 men on base for the loss.
The White Sox are 4-10 against the Yankees in their last 14 games but the last time these two teams met was back in late April when they split a 4 game series in the Bronx. The Yankees came into that series as an explosive offense but their offense was shut down for the first three games. The Yanks lost the first two games to the Sox then came back to win the next two. Phil Humber pitched game two for the Sox in this series and nearly no-hit the Yankees.You Can Read All About Philip Humber HERE for a scouting report. Although the White Sox were outscored in that series 17 to 9, they out-hit the Yanks 31 to 26.
PITCHING MATCHUPS
Monday: CC Sabathia (15-5, 2.56 ERA) vs Jake Peavy (4-4, 5.27 ERA)
-CC is coming off a really impressive start that I still believe would have been a no-hitter or even possibly a perfect game had there not been two rain delays. He allowed 3 unearned runs over 7 innings and finished the game with a season high 14 strikeouts for his 15th win. In general, CC has been amazing this season and defines what makes a true ace. You can read more about CC’s success lately RIGHT HERE
-Sabathia is 2-1 with a 1.57 ERA and 30 strikeouts in his last three starts
-CC is 17-4 with a 3.68 ERA against the White Sox in his career over 30 starts
-Sabathia has only allowed 5 earned runs over his last 58 2/3 innings he’s pitched
-Over his last 7 games, CC is 6-1 with a .82 ERA
-Alexei Ramirez is batting .400 against CC in his career
-Peavy had a tough month of July going 0-3 with a 6.67 ERA over his last five starts.
-In Peavy’s last start he took a no decision against Detroit after allowing 4 runs on 10 hits over 6 innings.
-Peavy is 0-2 with a 3.60 ERA against the Yankees in his career
-Scouting Report on Peavy is that he uses a mix of 6 pitches. His 2 and 4 seamers are used in tandem very effectively while he also uses his cutter & slider fairly often as his secondary pitches. He also uses a curve and changeup to keep the batters guessing.
-Peavy has not faced the Yankees since coming to the White Sox and the last time he faced the Yankees was while he was with the Padres in 2008 allowing 4 runs over 4 innings.
Tuesday: Phil Hughes (1-3, 8.24 ERA) vs. John Danks (4-8, 3.79 ERA)
-Hughes is coming off a no decision against the Mariners last week but it was a less than stellar performance which seemed to indicate that his arm is still not back to 100% as his velocity dies down after the 1st/2nd innings and he has trouble putting batters away after getting ahead in the count. You can read all about Phil Hughes’ last start HERE in greater depth. Although the Yankees have been tight lipped about Hughes, this could be very well be his last start this season as Nova has proven himself more worthy.
-Hughes is 1-1 with a 6.06 ERA over his last 3 starts with 11 strikeouts
-Danks is 4-0 with a .98 ERA since June 1st
-Danks is going to come into this game throwing lots of changeups to righties as he typically does.
-Danks has not allowed more than 2 runs in his past 5 starts
-The last time that Danks started against the Yanikees was August 28 of last season when he allowed 8 runs over 4 innings.
-Cano is batting .500 against Danks and Swisher is hitting .400 against him.
Wednesday: AJ Burnett (8-9, 4.23 ERA ) vs. Gavin Floyd (9-9, 3.96 ERA)
-AJ is coming off one of the more unusual games I have seen him pitch this past Friday night. He struck out 10 batters over 8 innings but gave up 4 runs on 4 hits to take the loss. Overall he pitched great and I think that he improved as the game continued but just made a few mistakes which he paid for.
-AJ has pitched at least 5 innings in all his starts this season and has only allowed more than 4 runs twice.
-Floyd is coming off his 3rd straight win against the Red Sox this past Friday night allowing only 1 run on 3 hits over 7 innings. In his last 3 starts he is 3-0 with a .81 ERA and 16 strikeouts.
-Although he has been getting more strikeouts lately, Floyd's strikeout rate is fairly low at 6.4/9IP which is down nearly 1 strikeout per nine than last year.
-The last time Floyd pitched against the Yankees was in April when he took the win after throwing 8 innings of 2 run ball. He used his cutter fairly often that day to shut down the Yanks.
Thursday: Ivan Nova (9-4, 4.01 ERA ) vs. Philip Humber (8-7, 3.44 ERA)
-As of today the Yankees are still listing Bartolo Colon as Thursday’s starter but from what I have seen during the postgame and interviews in the last two days, it seems like the yanks will be using a 6 man rotation over the next week in order to allow Colon to pitch against the Red Sox this weekend. I think it’s the smart move at this point since Colon is likely shaping up to be a #2 starter in the postseason if he continues his dominance and a start against Boston will really put him to the test. In turn, Nova will pitch Thursday as it is his regularly scheduled start and Colon will get bumped and work around CC’s 5 day schedule
-Nova had a strong start on Saturday night against the O’s pitching 7 full innings and allowing only 2 runs on 6 hits and striking out 6.
-Nova pitched against the White Sox in late April taking the loss to Gavin Floyd after pitching 6.1 innings and only allowing 1 run.
-Humber had a tough time against Boston this past weekend and was unable to make it out of the 5th inning after allowing 4 runs.
-Over his past 3 starts, Humber is 0-3 with a 9.00 ERA
-Humber nearly pitched a no hitter against the Yankees in April allowing no runs on 1 hit over 7 innings.
-Humber has the best ERA on the White Sox this season.
-Humber’s strikeout ratio is very low at 5.9/9IP. Looks like he is having trouble putting batters away.
-Read a full breakdown on Philip Humber HERE
YANKEES NOTES
-Derek Jeter is Day to Day due to a bruised middle finger. The X Rays were negative but Jeter is having problems holding the bat tight so its likely the Yanks could give him a few days off. There has also been some rumblings that Jesus Montero may join the Yankees very soon and with Jeter out of the lineup, this could be a big opportunity for Montero even if he just DH’s.
-Texeira is on a hot streak lately and went 13-39 with 4 homeruns during this past homestand in the Bronx.
-Swisher is still hot as well going 15-36 in the homestand with 3 homeruns.
-Gardner had some trouble during the past homestand going a mere 7-28, but I think it’s fair to give him a pass as he delivered the decisive bases clearing triple on Sunday against the Orioles.
WHITE SOX NOTES
-Paul Konerko is day to day after getting hit with a pitch Sunday by the Red Sox. Konerko pulled himself out of the game after being hit in the calf. If Konerko does not play during this series it would be a big loss for the White Sox as he leads the team with a .305 average, 25 home runs and 76 RBI’s. Konerko has some big numbers against the Yankees as well so his injury couldn’t have come at a better time for the Yanks. (.315, 20 HR’s in his career vs Yankees)
-Juan Pierre is on a heater over the last month hitting .345 in his last 28 games
-Brent Morel has gotten hot lately with 5 hits in his last 10 at bats
-Alex Rios hit a little slump recently and has only 3 hits in his last 23 at bats
-Carlos Quentin is only 4 for his last 22 at bats.
-I’m not sure what happened to Adam Dunn since coming to the White Sox but he is only hitting .195 this season.
