Big Mike and Buchholz. The pitching matchup was a really good one on paper last night. Unfortunately for Boston only Big Mike was able to live up to that matchup, as they lost their ace early to an elbow injury. The Yankees used that unexpected pitching change to grab a comfortable lead and ride Pineda’s strong start to a series-opening victory.
Pineda was sharp, even if he did have at least one runner on base all night. The Sox put men on in each of the first 4 innings, but Pineda was always in control and shut them down with his strong fastball-slider combo.