In Pedro We Trust.

Buckley's Herald pay column on Pedro. ... The last time Oakland faced Martinez, they forced him to throw 101 pitches in 5 innings; they hope to be equally patient tonight. ... Aces: At 80-33, Hudson has a .708 winning percentage, which trails only two pitchers in major league history who have logged at least 50 wins: Spud Chandler's .717 and Martinez's .712. No AL pitcher has won more games (69) than Hudson over the last four years and no one in the league this year held opponents to a lower slugging percentage (.308). Only Martinez's ERA (2.22) was lower this year than Hudson's (2.70), and Hudson held batters to a .223 average, third-best in the league to Martinez (.215) and teammate Barry Zito (.219).

Pedro in September

Date  Opp   Score   IP    H   R  BB   K   PIT

0905  NYY   W 9-3    6    4   1   1   9    94

0910  Bal   W 5-0    8    3   0   2   9   116

0916  TB    W 3-2    9    6   2   1   6   122

0921  Cle   W 2-0    7    4   0   2  11   115

0926  TB    W 7-2    3    2   0   0   2    57

                    33   19   3   6  37   498  4-0, 0.82

Hudson in September

Date  Opp   Score   IP    H   R  BB   K   PIT

0903  Bal   L 0-9    3    8   5   0   1    66

0908  Ana   L 1-3    7.2  9   3   4   7   127

0913  Tex   W 9-3    6    7   3   2   6   100

0919  Sea   L 1-6    6    8   4   3   7   112

0924  Tex   W 5-3    7    5   2   1   5   100

                    29.2 37  17  10  26   505  2-3, 4.85

Pedro in Playoffs

Year Round  Tm  Opp  W/L  G   ERA   W-L   IP   H   ER  BB  SO

1998 ALDS  BOS  CLE   L   1   3.86  1-0   7.0   6   3   0   8

1999 ALDS  BOS  CLE   W   2   0.00  1-0  10.0   3   0   4  11

1999 ALCS  BOS  NYY   L   1   0.00  1-0   7.0   2   0   2  12

  3 Postseason Ser   1-2  4   1.12  3-0  24.0  11   3   6  31

Check out playoff coverage in newspapers in all 30 MLB cities. Links to Boston papers are at left. Here are links to Oakland papers:

Oakland Tribune
San Francisco Chronicle
Contra Costa Times
San Jose Mercury News
Sacramento Bee
Sonoma County Press Democrat
MLB

I loved the result of all 3 games yesterday. The Yankees' defense is a big flaw and it could hurt them even more on the carpet in Minnesota. Soriano and Jeter have minimal range; Bernie should be playing in left with Matsui in center, but that isn't going to happen this fall. Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus made reference to "Bernie Williams' Corpse" adding: "... Williams hasn't been even an adequate center fielder in two years. He can't throw--as evidenced on the first run of the game, when he just missed gunning down Cristian Guzman at the pitcher's mound--and his diminished lateral range no longer makes up for a first step measured in geologic time." And Sheehan's a Yankee fan!

Bernie's arm is almost as weak as Damon's. The Twins tested both Williams and Matsui yesterday and, since they were successful, they will keep doing it. Game 2 starter Pettitte allows the most baserunners per inning on the Yankees staff, so that could be a big issue in Game 2 tomorrow.

RC/27

Boston                 Oakland



Ramirez     8.77

Nixon       8.54

Ortiz       7.69

Mueller     7.68

Garciaparra 6.61

                       Chavez     6.28

Varitek     6.16

                       Durazo     5.90

                       Tejada     5.76

Millar      5.70

Damon       5.41

                       Hernandez  5.15

Walker      4.90

                       Hatteberg  4.59

                       Ellis      4.12

                       Long       3.86

Not much else to say ... Just slip into my new David Ortiz Fan Club t-shirt (which arrived about 10 minutes ago!), open a bottle of Sam Adams Octoberfest (for luck) and count down the hours .... Go Giants! Go Cubs!