With their respective eight- and
four-game winning streaks, the Sox and the Yanks are officially the two hottest
teams in the IL leading up to their first of 16 encounters in the 2012 season.
Here are nine pregame pop-ups to tune up
for Tuesday’s 6:15 p.m. pitch at McCoy Stadium.
·
Both
of Scranton’s scheduled starters are returnees from 2011 and have had inverse
fortunes against Pawtucket. D.J. Mitchell, slated to toe the rubber on Tuesday,
is 3-0 lifetime and went 2-0 against the PawSox last season whereas Wednesday’s
starter, Adam Warren, has lost three straight decisions.
·
Mitchell
is already 2-0 on the year in 2012 and the only Triple-A Yankees hurler with at
least one win and no losses on his tab. He most recently pitched eight innings
in a 2-0 victory over Rochester last Tuesday, confining the Red Wings to two
hits and striking out seven adversaries.
·
For
the second straight series, a team will come into McCoy Stadium bearing the
league’s batting average leader. Within the last four days, Durham’s Leslie
Anderson has given way to nine other hitters, including two apiece from the
PawSox and Yankees. The category’s new leader is Scranton’s Dewayne Wise, who
has hit .439 through 11 games and 41 at-bats.
·
Wise
is second in the league in both on-base percentage and slugging percentage at
.477 and .829, respectively.
·
First
baseman Steve Pearce has hit 12-for-27 amidst a seven-game hitting streak for
the Yanks. He has also batted in at least one run (seven total) over his last
four outings.
·
Former
Sox pitcher Manny Delcarmen, already 1-1 and with a 1.93 ERA on the year, was
placed on Scranton’s seven-day disabled list this past Friday, meaning he will
not be seen by his former rooters in this series.
·
The
PawSox went 10-6 overall against the Yankees last season, but split their eight
meetings at McCoy. The minor league rivals went an identical 4-4 against each
other in Pawtucket during the 2010 season series.
·
Pawtucket
has not won the majority of its home games against Scranton since going 6-1 in
that matchup during the 2006 season.
·
The
8-8 Yankees have played the fewest games of all IL teams to date, chiefly owing
to repeated instances of inclement weather. They managed to get in only half of
their four-game wraparound home set with the Norfolk Tides, Monday’s game being
called off due to unseasonable snow in Pennsylvania.
