Next Up: the New York Yankees

I hate Yankee games. Hate them.

That said, tonight is supposed to be Chien-Ming Wang. Wang throws a fast ball in the mid-nineties, a sinker, a slider, a change-up, and a splitter. He's a ground ball pitcher who induces a lot of double plays. He doesn't give up many home runs (only 9 last year), he doesn't walk many batters (only 59 last year), and he doesn't strike out many either (104 last year.) In the past Wang hasn't done well in Fenway park, last year he gave up 5 of his walks in the 11 and a third innings he pitched there and allowed 19 hits.

On Saturday, the Yankees trot out Mike Mussina. He has very good command and throws a low-nineties fast ball. He's also got a splitter, a slider, a change-up, a curve ball, and a knuckle curve. He's also got a history of excellence at fielding. Mussina is supposed to be showing his age but it doesn't really look like it to me. So far this year he's had two pretty good outings striking out one batter for every two hits he allows. He has already given up two home runs but so has Manny Del. Having faced forty-seven batters he's only walked three of them.

On Sunday, the scheduled Yankees pitcher is Phil Hughes. From all I can tell, Hughes is practically the pride and joy of the Yankees organization. So far this season (and it's two games in) Hughes hasn't had the success that they were hoping for from him. He had a no-decision against Toronto that was widely blamed on poor umpiring and a loss to Kansas City that was blamed on the weather. Hughes could be a beast. He's got a four-seam fast ball in the low-mid nineties, a two-seam fast ball in the high eighties to low nineties, a knuckle curve and a change up.

The Yankees lineup is the Yankees lineup and you just have to hope to out-pitch them. They typically don't hit well against pitchers they've never seen before, so that's a plus for Buchholz. Beckett has sometimes been excellent against the Yankees and other times sort of blah. Last year they hit pretty well against Daisuke. With Jeter and maybe Posada out of the lineup they'll be a little bit hobbled.

As a bonus for tonight, the Red Sox have generally hit well against Wang; especially Manny, Ortiz, Youkilis and Pedroia.