Looking ahead a little bit – like three-to-six days ahead – there's some interesting pitching match-ups for the four-game series that opens the new Yankee Stadium.It's almost enough for the game on the field to steal the show from the official launch of the luxury cruiser U.S.S. One-and-a-half-billion. And almost worth a $2,600 ticket to see up close. (OK, maybe not.)
How the Indians and Yankees line up, after the jump:
• Thursday: How about the last two AL Cy Young Award winners going head-to-head? C.C. Sabathia, the 2007 winner, faces his former teammates, including Cliff Lee, the 2008 Cy Young winner. Lee is 3-3 with a 5.62 ERA in seven career starts against the Yankees. Sabathia spent his enter career with Cleveland until last July 7, when he was traded to Milwaukee.
• Friday: This is the least remarkable of the matchups, with Anthony Reyes going against Joba Chamberlain. It's an unusual Friday afternoon game, and Joba has a way of electrifying the New York crowd.
• Saturday: Outfielders' afternoon off. Fausto Carmona and Chien-Ming Wang have the hardest sinkers in the league. According to fangraphs.com, they rank fifth and fourth, respectively, in career groundball-to-flyball ratio among active pitchers with 500 innings. A home run in the first six innings will be an upset.
• Sunday: Ah, the boobirds get their day. Carl Pavano – dubbed "American Idle" by the New York Post for his inability to get on the field over the course of his four-year, $39.95 million contract with the Yankees – returns with the Tribe. Pavano helped the Florida Marlins beat the Yankees in the 2003 World Series. A year later, the Yankees signed him. Four years later, they discarded Pavano and signed another former Marlin: A.J. Burnett, scheduled to start Sunday against his good pal Pavano.
