Yankees at Giants 6/22 Game Preview

Hey, look who has made his return...the one, the only: Kei Igawa? Yeah, you definitely cannot liken his rise through the minors like Roger Clemens'. However, Kei was effective in his minor league appearances. In six minor league starts, he posted a 3-3 record with a 2.65 ERA and a .233 BAA. Another striking statistic is that he has struck out 33 batters in 34 innings, nearly 9 K/IP. Apparently Tampa pitching guru Nardi Contreras has gotten Igawa to figure out how to stop pitching up in the strikezone, especially with his changeup, which was a huge problem in the majors, and was a large cause for his major league struggles. With that in mind, expect to see a marked improvement over his initial starts with the Yankees, although it would be rather hard for him not to do better this time around.

Taking the mound for the Giants tonight is the electric youngster Matt Cain. He has pitched through some serious bad luck this season, with a 2-7 record and a 3.15 ERA. Kind of hard to imagine a low ERA like that adjoined with such a poor win-loss record. More proof to the fact that the win-loss statistic is completely meaningless. Run support can do wonders to it, and make a pitcher who really wasn't that good look good and vice versa. To be honest I really can't see the Yankees winning this one. Prediction: Giants 7, Yankees 4.