The Yankees are playing the Detroit Tigers tonight.
Pitching-wise the matchup was decidedly unpromising. The Yankees sent out rookie Shane Green, against the Tigers\’ David Price – a Cy Young Award winner with a .634 lifetime won-lost percentage.
So it was not much of a surprise that, after four innings, the score was 8-1.
But very surprisingly, it was the Yankees, not the Tigers, holding that lead.
Price was knocked out of the game with no outs in the third inning, after giving up 12 hits – nine straight in the third alone (I would bet body parts that is the most number of hits Price has ever given up in that short an outing, and by plenty).
As a Yankee fan for so many years that when I started rooting for them the Babe was still pitching for Boston (well, ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration), this is a flip-flop I can live with.
By the way, as long as I\’m mentioning Babe Ruth, here\’s an astonishing little trivium for you. Of all the pitchers who have won 15 or more games against the Yankees in baseball history, the guy with the best won-lost record…..was the Babe. With the Red Sox (where he was a hall-of-fame quality pitcher before becoming, arguably, the greatest hitter of them all) Ruth went 17-5 lifetime against the Yankees.
Thank you, again, Harry Frazee.
