For the most part some of you are on the right track.
The most important thing you need to ask yourself when handicapping this game is "Is Andy Pettitte 100 percent coming off this groin injury"?
Before the groin injury, he was taken to the hospital in May for arm troubles, specificly his elbow, MRI's proved he had inflamation of the elbow.
He was listed as day to day.
He missed his next start, then had an efficient month of June, leading many to conclude his elbow is OK.
Then he suffered that groin injury in a start against Tampa Bay, right after the All Star game layoff.
Tampa Bay lit him up like a Christmas tree in that start, going 2 innings, giving up 6 hits, he never saw the fourth inning of that game, and then he never saw any inning in the month of August.
He was supposed to come back in the middle of August, but the groin wasn't healed, that's what happens when you are closer to 40 then 30 years of age, you don't heal like you used to.
Pettitte finally came back 30 days ago and was efficient, but babied against a weak Oriole lineup.
Then he got rocked, hard, against a decimated Red Sox lineup, and on the final day of the regular season, got rocked, hard yet again in a rematch against the very same Red Sox lineup.
He was good against the Twins last week in the ALDS game, but this was a Twin team that wasn't going anywhere with out their co-leader Mourneau out of the middle of the lineup to help out Mauer and the rest, and was on a strict pitch count.
So, going back to my original question, is Pettitte quite right after suffering that groin injury?
Why was he held back a month after his due back date?
Yankee coaches and front office say "precautionary", which is code for 'no, he's not quite right'
Ever try to throw with a bad groin?
I don't know about you, but when I hurt my groin it hurt just looking at a picture of Carrie Underwood in a string bikini on a Mexican beach.
And what's up with the bad back he's been complaining about lately?
The elbow may be fine now, but is the groin? His back?
There are as many question marks here as there are on the back of the 'Riddler's' leotard.
Moving on.
The current Ranger lineup, that is on the roster right here, right now has demonstated they can hit Pettitte, and hit him well.
Collectivly the Rangers are 44 for 143 lifetime against Pettitte.
That is not a small sampling, 143 at bats is more than a litmus test.
44 for 143 is .308, more importantly the Rangers have a lifetime OBA of .373 against Pettitte.
That's almost 2 baserunners out of every 5 plate appearances get on base.
Baserunners translates into runs scored.
Vlad eats Andy alive (.346).
Francouer and Young own Pettitte, Hamilton is .300 and has taken him deep, even Benjy has taken him deep.
He won't pitch to Cruz, even though he only has one hit, he's walked him 5 times.
The catalyst, Andrus has nine appearaces against Pettitte, has reached base six times, that's .667, and that number can't be ignored, Petitte may have one of the greatest pickoff moves known to man, but if Andrus gets on base his average two times, Andy may be throwing to first more that he throws to the plate.
If Andrus gets on like he does against Pettite, that will be a major distraction.
Oh, sure, Pettitte is the winningest playoff pitcher of all time, but how much of that is due to post season expansion, and how much of that is due to the fact his teams have made the playoffs 13 out of 15 years.
I hate the term 'compiler' but it may apply here, he may have 19 wins, but his playoff ERA is almost 4 and his ratio of 1.3 is ordinary.
This current Yankee lineup is 79 for 282 lifetime against Lee.
That' .280, not great, but he's better against his opposing lineup tonight then Pettitte is against the Rangers.
Yankees OBA against Lee is .329, a full 1/2 point less that Pettitte's.
.50 difference is exactly one base runner less every two innings that Pettitte.
Or simply put, on paper, yeah, yeah, I know, games are played on grass, not paper, but .50 OBA difference is four more baserunners, which equals about one more run.
Jeter has had success against Lee .417, Teixeria is .333.
Lee does get Cano out, which is very important, Cano is .214, can't hit that lefty.
Swisher is the 'x' factor in the lineup tonight.
He's .320, and if he's behind Jeter in the lineup, they will need that bat to win this if Jeter does his job, becuase A-Rod for the most part has struggled against Lee.
Cliff Lee has seven post season starts, is six and zero with a no decision.
That's undefeated, perfect.
Fading a pitcher that is perfect in the post season is risky business.
He's completed three of those seven games.
He's gotten in to the eighth every other time.
He's a big game October pitcher that averages 8.1 innings, has a October ERA of an unheard of 1.44 against the leagues elite teams, and a ridiculousy stupid ratio of 0.7.
Those are Hall of Fame numbers, and that's not debateable.
So what do we have here?
We have a Ranger pitcher that has been proven flawless in the postseason, that is almost guaranted to give you 8 solid innings, backed by a lineup that has proven they can hit hard the opposing pitcher, against a pitcher that has been suffering fron nagging injuries the past 4 months, for a team that is lucky to be home tied at 1 game apiece.
Ask yourself one more question?
Have the Yankees given you a reason to make you think they can beat Lee tonight after their last two games.
I'm one of the biggest Yankee fans on these boards, but in my opinion, given all the facts, Cliff Lee is a bargain tonight at -112.
As the 'Who' once sang, "a bargain the best I've ever seen"
But what do I know? I'm the same guy who posted that the Texas Rangers at 2:1 future odds back in March was the best future value on the board and got ridiculed for that thread.