The Yankees need to win Game 6 to keep their World Series hopes alive
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The New York Yankees and Texas Rangers are the only game on tap on Friday night as the NLCS takes a day off before resuming on Saturday. It's a must-win scenario for the Yankees in game 6 as they need to stave off elimination in Arlington to prolong the series to a 7th and deciding game.
Game time is 8pm ET and the pitching match-up features Phil Hughes for New York against Colby Lewis for the Rangers.
Betting odds depict a total coin toss as
Ladbrokes have New York priced at -105 (20/21) while Texas come in at EVEN odds with
BetFred. Really, however, you have to like Texas's chances of winning the series in game 6 not only due to the fact that the game is in Arlington but also because Phil Hughes is the scheduled starter for New York.
It's easy to look at Hughes and say "Here's a guy with an 18-8 record" and assume that he is going to win but pitching records are a very misleading statistic when it comes to assessing a pitcher's performance. They are heavily affected by offense and the pitcher has no effect on that in the AL.
Lewis is better than Hughes in every important category: Lewis has a lower ERA, Lewis has a lower WHIP, Lewis has a much better adjusted ERA, Lewis strikes more batters out per nine innings, and he also walks fewer batters per 9 innings.
The only reason Lewis is 12-13 is because of one thing: BAD LUCK.
The Rangers must not have been providing the run support to Lewis while Hughes received ample in his starts.
Don't look at Hughes vs Lewis as 18-8 vs 12-13. Look at it this way instead:
Hughes: 4.19 ERA, 102 ERA+, 1.248 WHIP, 8.3 H/9, 3.0 BB/9, 7.5 SO/9
Lewis: 3.72 ERA, 116 ERA+, 1.189 WHIP, 7.8 H/9, 2.9 BB/9, 8.8 SO/9
Lewis gets the nod in every category and he was effective against New York earlier this series while the 2010 'All-Star' Phil Hughes gave up 10 hits in 4 innings and 7 earned runs to Texas not long ago.
Take the Rangers at EVEN odds with
BetFred as they actually look like a 70% thing in this game as opposed to the 50-50 thing that the odds imply.
