Chicken Little
The only curse the Red Sox had to deal with last night was being cursed with an idiot for a manager. Grady Little stuck to his guns with his lineup, a move which proved to be fruitful once the Red Sox hitters came alive in Game 6. He stayed the course in Game 7, and why wouldn't he? He's got a great-hitting team, and there ain't a whole lot on the bench.
But staying with hitters isn't the same as staying with a fragile pitcher who already looks like he's got a sore arm, and who had thrown about 115 pitches last night. Pedro was done, plain and simple. He was throwing tailing fastballs that were tailing right over the heart of the plate. He might be able to get away with that when he's throwing 97 and has his other stuff working, but that wasn't the case last night. He was throwing in the low 90's, and though he was throwing his breaking ball a lot and for some strikes, it wasn't enough to keep guys off the fastball.
So Little has Alan Embree warmed up and ready to go, obviously for the lefty-lefty matchup with Hidecki Matsui. Embree is effective against both lefties and righties. Matsui was 2 for 5 off of Embree this season with a strikeout, meaning it was no sure thing that Embree would get Matsui out. Matsui, however, was 0 for 10 against Pedro. OK, so Grady lets Pedro pitch to Matsui. But this is faltering Pedro, tired Pedro, and Matsui had already seen him a couple times last night. I'd rather go with Embree in that situation, but 0 for 10 is 0 for 10. Little made the tough call.
Pedro gives up a hard shot down the line to Matsui. Little leaves a tiring Pedro in to face Jorge Posada, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, and the Yankees down by two with only one out. He chooses to pitch to Posada, rather than load them up. Posada is 9 for 47 in his career against Pedro, and 2 for 8 against Embree.
Why warm up Embree if you aren't going to bring him in at this point? Why look at those career numbers when you know good and well that most of those AB's were against a fresh and electric Pedro, and not the guy serving up fastball after fastball over the middle of the plate?In fairness, Posada's hit wasn't exactly a rocket. But it wasn't Posada's hit that sank the Sox. It was Matsui's hit, and Bernie Williams' hit before that. Williams is 2 for 14 in his career against Embree, and 12 for 60 against Pedro.
The lesson is the same. All of these Yankee hitters had poor lifetime records against Pedro, and not much better against Embree. Little needed to throw that out the window and look at the pitcher who was on the mound at that very moment. I saw a pitcher who was tired and was very hittable. Grady Little saw something else. Moments later, Red Sox nation saw the lead slip away, and that was all it took for a reprise of the superstitious talk of the Curse of the Bambino.
10:24:39 AM 
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