Preview: Red Sox vs. A’s 4/20/11
The Red Sox were predictably flummoxed by Oakland’s good, young left-handed pitcher in yesterday’s loss. Good thing they won’t be facing another pitcher like that tonight, right? Oh, wait…
Gio Gonzalez, a 25-year-old lefty, is the current league leader in ERA (0.47). If you have some episodes of House clogging up your DVR, tonight might be a good night to catch up on them.
While the reasons for the Sox’ struggles against lefties are obvious, have you seen a plausible explantion of why they seem to struggle against young pitching?
The only semi-persuasive thing I can think of is that, as the oldest team in MLB, some of the Sox above-average offensive potential depends on “knowing” the league’s pitching. So are the Sox a lineup stuffed with wily veterans who are particularly gifted at learning from their past experiences? And does that really make much difference given all the advance video / scouting players have at their disposal?
I don’t watch enough of the other “veteran” lineups (yanks/ Phillies) to know if they experience the same (apparent) drop off in results when facing young’uns.
McBain,
I definitely think the unfamiliarity factor has something to do with it. The veteran angle is an interesting twist that I haven’t thought of before, and there may be merit to it. It probably has less of an effect than the left-hander variable, and the fact that both Anderson and Gonzalez are talented pitchers who pitch well against other teams.
But yeah, it seems like every time I look on the schedule and there’s some 21-year-old out fresh out of AA on the probable starters list, I cringe.
The A’s are a juggernaut waiting to bust through a wall and scream “IT’S CLOBBERIN’ TIME!”
I may have just confused my comic books there for a second.
Just don’t forget that the game starts at 3:35ET today. I don’t want you Sawx fans to pretend you didn’t see the 2-game sweep.
And why is it that the Sawx only have to go to Oakland once for 2 games, and Oakland is in Fenway twice for 6 games?
I figured the A’s to give Texas a run for their money this year.
For some reason, I don’t think the unbalanced road schedule will hurt Oakland very much.