Division Series: Sunday, October 5th, 2003

Sunday, October 05 2003 @ 12:57 PM EDT

Contributed by: robertdudek

Oakland Athletics at Boston Red Sox, 1 PM ET (Game 4)

Tim Hudson starts on 3 days rest - the second pitcher in this year's post-season to do so. Conventional wisdom supposes that a sinkerball pitcher doesn't need a lot of rest between starts, and Hudson threw only 106 pitches on Wednesday.

The Athletics should be celebrating a sweep today, but instead will have to deal with John Burkett. I'm not a big fan of Burkett - he always seemed to me like a pitcher who was reasonably effective only against weaker lineups. Prediction: Oakland 6 Boston 3.

John Burkett (2002/2003)
versus AB H HR TB W K HBP SB CS OBP SLG K pct W pct
right 676 198 21 310 40 109 12 9 7 .343 .459 .150 .056
left 736 203 24 322 57 122 5 8 6 .332 .438 .153 .072

John Burkett (2002/2003)
versus	AB	H	HR	TB	W	K	HBP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	K pct	W pct
right	676	198	21	310	40	109	12	9	7	.343	.459	.150	.056
left	736	203	24	322	57	122	5	8	6	.332	.438	.153	.072

I recommend the patient approach today for Oakland. They ought to get a fair number of baserunners and should look to build one big inning that will knock out the Red Sox.

Oakland Athletics versus Righthanded Pitchers (2002/2003)
Player	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	W	K	SB	CS	HBP	avg	obp	slg
M Ellis	692	182	34	7	11	69	119	8	1	10	.263	.339	.380
E Durazo	532	139	31	2	28	114	112	1	2	2	.261	.394	.485
E Chavez	819	251	57	7	48	102	135	11	3	1	.306	.384	.569
M Tejada	994	297	58	0	44	56	127	8	0	15	.299	.346	.490
S Hatteberg	798	217	44	4	21	108	79	0	1	6	.272	.363	.416
J Guillen	488	140	22	2	29	25	93	3	4	13	.287	.338	.518
A Melhuse	53	15	4	0	3	9	13	0	0	0	.283	.387	.528
J Dye	560	127	27	1	25	56	113	2	0	11	.227	.279	.413
E Byrnes	318	78	20	7	8	35	58	9	2	4	.245	.328	.428

notes: OBP is calculated without including sac flies (H+W+HBP)/(AB+W+HBP); player in red indicates the batter is at a platoon disadvantage.

The Athletics shot themsleves in the foot yesterday in the 6th and 7th innings. They probably should have been up 3-1 heading home but instead they went to extra innings. It's a shame, because they were aggressive on the basepaths throughout most of the game, but made big mistakes at the wrong time.

Macha is going with his Game 1 lineup, with one exception: former Toronto farmhand Adam Melhuse is giving Ramon Hernandez a breather.

Tim Hudson (2002/2003)
versus	AB	H	HR	TB	W	K	HBP	SB	CS	OBP	SLG	K pct	W pct
right	777	177	10	240	50	147	9	6	6	.282	.309	.176	.060
left	1008	257	24	250	73	167	9	6	8	.311	.380	.153	.068

The Sox hit Tim Hudson fairly well on Wednesday. Hudson faced 29 batters, gave up 2 homeruns, a walk and struck out 5. Of the 21 balls in play, 8 were singles for a BIP average of .381. Hudson induced 10 ground ball outs compared to 4 flyball outs.

Look for more of the same today. Fenway isn't a great homerun park, especially for lefthanded batters, so the Sox will try to string together singles and doubles against Hudson.

Boston Red Sox versus Righthanded Pitchers (2002/2003)
Player	AB	H	2B	3B	HR	W	K	SB	CS	HBP	avg	obp	slg
J Damon	881	243	47	9	20	105	104	58	8	5	.276	.356	.418
N Garciaparra	1004	298	72	13	42	62	95	19	4	13	.297	.327	.520
T Walker	883	268	63	6	18	78	108	7	6	2	.304	.361	.412
M Ramirez	789	250	46	1	56	130	154	2	1	15	.317	.423	.591
D Ortiz	626	192	56	2	42	88	114	1	2	1	.307	.393	.604
K Millar	729	208	54	1	33	68	146	3	3	8	.285	.353	.498
T Nixon	761	223	51	8	46	110	145	5	4	4	.293	.385	.562
B Mueller	649	201	46	8	15	82	83	1	4	4	.310	.390	.475
J Varitek	664	174	40	1	23	68	158	5	4	10	.262	.362	.429

notes: OBP is calculated without including sac flies (H+W+HBP)/(AB+W+HBP); player in red indicates the batter is at a platoon disadvantage.

Todd Walker and Trot Nixon return to the lineup. The offence will need the lefthanded batters to step up: they've scored 8 runs in almost 32 innings of play. Will they try to run on Adam Melhuse?

**Probable Pitchers**


Sunday	OAK	Tim Hudson	at	BOS	John Burkett	1:00 ET
	NYY	David Wells	at	MIN	Johan Santana	4:00 ET
...	CHI	Kerry Wood	at	ATL	Mike Hampton	7:30 ET

**Playoff Results**


Tuesday	MIN	Johan Santana	at	NYY	Mike Mussina	3-1 MIN
...	FLA	Josh Beckett	at	SF	Jason Schmidt	2-0 SFG
...	CHI	Kerry Wood	at	ATL	Russ Ortiz	4-2 CHI

Wednesday	FLA	Brad Penny	at	SF	Sidney Ponson	9-5 FLA
...	CHI	Carlos Zambrano	at	ATL	Mike Hampton	5-3 ATL
...	BOS	Pedro Martinez	at	OAK	Tim Hudson	5-4 OAK

Thursday	BOS	Tim Wakefield	at	OAK	Barry Zito	5-1 OAK
...	MIN	Brad Radke	at	NYY	Andy Pettitte	4-1 NYY

Friday	SF	Kirk Ruerter	at	FLA	Mark Redman	4-3 FLA
...	ATL	Greg Maddux	at	CHI	Mark Prior	3-1 CHI

Saturday	NYY	Roger Clemens	at	MIN	Kyle Lohse	3-1 NYY
...	SFG	Jerome Williams	at	FLA	Dontrelle Willis	7-6 FLA
...	ATL	Russ Ortiz	at	ATL	Matt Clement	6-4 ATL
...	OAK	Ted Lilly	at	BOS	Derek Lowe	3-1 BOS

2003 Playoff Series

New York Yankees
versus

Minnesota Twins

NY leads 2-1

...........|

|...........

Atlanta Braves
versus

Chicago Cubs

tied 2-2

ALCS

NLCS

Florida Marlins

Oakland Athletics
versus

Boston Red Sox

OAK leads 2-1

...........|

|...........

San Francisco Giants
versus

Florida Marlins

FLA wins 3-1

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