AL East Roundup: Chase Wright Should Have Tanked His Major League Debut

AL EAST	W	L	GB	L10	STK	E#
Toronto Blue Jays	8	5	–	7-3	W2	—
Boston Red Sox	7	5	0.5	6-4	L1	150
Baltimore Orioles	7	7	1.5	6-4	L1	148
New York Yankees	6	6	1.5	5-5	W1	149
Tampa Bay Devil Rays	6	8	2.5	4-6	W1	147

Blue Jays 2, Red Sox 1. The Jays entered this game, with half their roster on the DL, a half-game behind the Sox and Diasuke Matsuzaka on the mound. No worries. Gustavo Chacin became just the latest pitcher to say “Sashimi!” as he shut down the Pink Hats for 6.2 innings. Jason Frasor came on in the 9th to close it out in the stead of BJ Ryan. Matsuzaka struck out 10 in 6 innings, but two runs on two hits and three walks in the 4th inning was enough for the Jays.

Yankees 10, Indians 3. The Yankees sent to the mound Chase Wright, who was only making his third career start above A-ball. He worked 5 innings and gave up only 3 runs. This is terrible news for the Yankees. At this point the Evil Empire needs a starter for Sunday night’s nationally televised game against the Red Sox in which Daisuke Matsuzaka will be going to the mound for the Sox. It will be Dice-K’s first appearance on national TV and his first shot at the Yankees. Currently Chien-Ming Wang is on the DL for the Yankees but he has pitched in extended spring training games and been effective. If Chase Wright had struggled last night, the Yankees likely would have called up Wang to pitch on Sunday. Since Wright was good in his first major league start, now it looks like his second will be on Sunday night, on national TV facing Dice-K. Good luck with that one.

NOTES FROM AROUND THE AL EAST…

• Jeff Karstens is likely to pitch against the Red Sox on Saturday for the Yankees, while Chien-Ming Wang should return from the DL to face the Rays on Tuesday.
• With all the injuries that the Jays have suffered recently, it is only appropriate that they had “Organ donor awareness” night last night. Of course with the Red Sox in town they could have called it “Help JD Drew” night.
• Wow! All of the sudden they love Alex Rodriguez in the Bronx. He is going to be laughing when he opts out of his contract. So will we.
• Nothing like brainwashing your child into rooting for the Red Sox. It is only fitting that one of the Kings of Unintentional Comedy, Ben Affleck is starring in this little diddy.