Series Continues in Philly

Down the highway they go and now they have a Halloween date night in Philadelphia. Tonight's match up will be a pair of lefties, Andy Pettitte vs. Cole Hamels. With the way Hamels has been pitching this season and in the playoffs in general it would appear the Yankees have the advantage over the Phils.

Actually it would appear that the Yankees have the advantage in the next two games when you consider they are in all likelihood sending CC Sabathia to the mound in Game 4 against Joe Blanton.

But it is not the pitching that worries me about the Yankees. To me it just seems that they have been unable to mount any serious offensive momentum in this year's playoff run. They have only really had two offensive outbursts to speak of. The first was in Game 4 of the ALCS when they clobbered the Angels 10-1. But even then most of those runs came at the end of the game to put it out of reach. The other outburst came in Game 5 when Mike Soiscia made the ill advised move of pulling John Lackey with two outs in the seventh inning.

Other than that the Yankees have gotten by on pitching and a home run here or there. Wait, let me correct that statement, the Yankees have gotten by on exceptional starting pitching and Mariano Rivera while the bats provide just enough offense in most games.

The Yankees need their bats to get going in some of these games. The next two would be the perfect time. Two pitchers are taking the mound for the Phillies who are either A) Inconsistant or B) Not good enough to throw out against the Yankees in the World Series.

Hamels has been bad this postseason. Everyone knows that he has pitched to the tune of a 6.52 ERA in three starts and has allowed six home runs in those three starts. What everyone else may have noticed as well is that for the season Hamels has allowed a batting line of .273/.315/.440. Those numbers are big jumps from his career averages and it seems the World Series hangover is still lingering in Hamels system.

And Blanton, well he is Joe Blanton. Now I know he won a World Series game last year. But he beat Andy Sonnanstine who was absolutely blown up by the Phils and he still allowed two home runs. That's before we even get to the fact that for his career, five Yankees hit over .300 against him including a disgusting .571 from Alex Rodriguez who has two homers in seven at bats against him.

On papar neither match up looks good for the Phillies, but the same could have been said for Game 2 with Pedro on the mound. It is unlikely that any game is a complete blow out. One reason is that it seems unlikely the Yankee offense is going to suddenly start destroying pitchers at this point. The other is that neither team is ever going to really be out of the game. There may be some high scoring affairs, but I doubt any team has a runaway game in Philly.