The Baseball-Reference.com Play Index Stat of the Day

I have seen a lot of stats mentioned in different places about various records of Red Sox pitchers vs the Yankees, and the reverse. (Many over at Peter Abraham’s LoHud Yankees Blog.)

Let’s take a look. First, Red Sox starters this year against the Yankees:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Schilling        3  3  0  0  1  0  0   0  18     7.00  29  15  14  6   2   0  10   0
  Matsuzaka        3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  19.1   6.98  19  15  15  3   8   0  16   3
  Beckett          3  3  0  1  1  0  0   0  19.2   5.49  30  13  12  1   6   0  18   0
  Wakefield        3  3  0  0  3  0  0   0  14    10.93  19  17  17  4  17   0   7   1
  Tavarez          2  2  0  2  0  0  0   0  10.2   4.22   6   5   5  1   6   0   4   0

There you have it, folks. Julian Tavarez, your Yankee-killer. (Joking aside, I think Tavarez has done a great job for Boston this year. He’s got fantastic stats as a #5 starter and has helped keep their bullpen fresh.)

Now, as turnabout is fair play, the Yankee starters’ performance against Boston this year:

  Pitcher         G  GS GF  W  L  S CG SHO   IP    ERA   H   R   ER HR  BB IBB  SO HBP
+--------------+---+--+--+--+--+--+--+---+-----+------+---+---+---+--+---+---+---+---+
  Pettitte*        6  5  0  2  1  0  0   0  30.1   4.75  36  16  16  4  12   0  19   1
  Wang             3  3  0  2  1  0  0   0  18     4.50  23   9   9  2   8   0   7   2
  Mussina          2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0  11.2   9.26  19  12  12  4   5   1   3   0
  Clemens          1  1  0  1  0  0  0   0   6     1.50   2   1   1  1   5   0   2   1
  Karstens         2  2  0  0  1  0  0   0   4.1  14.54  11   7   7  1   2   0   1   0
  C. Wright        1  1  0  0  0  0  0   0   3    12.00   5   4   4  4   3   0   3   0 

*Numbers include 1 scoreless inning in relief on 4/22/07

I guess the Yankees’ numbers are somewhat better, especially that the three truly unimpressive performances above are by guys not currently in the rotation.

Here are the total lines for pitching by each staff (not just starters) against the other team:

Pitching Team      G   W   L   S   CG SHO   IP     ERA    H    R   ER   HR  BB  IBB  SO  HBP
+-+------------+----+---+---+---+---+---+------+------+----+----+----+---+----+---+----+---+
Yankees (vs BOS)   14   7   7   4   0   0  122     5.61  145   79   76  21   68   5   75   7
Boston  (vs NYY)   14   7   7   4   0   0  121     5.43  135   75   73  18   59   0   86   7  

Pretty similar, although the edge goes to Boston.Their bullpen has been a lot better than the Yankees’ in their head-to-head matchups.

Now, those 7 HBP by each team are a bit ominous…