Wake Up: Off To Face The Yanks

The first picture I ever took of Tim Wakefield, June 28, 2005


I was mulling about the internet as I tend to do on hot afternoons and I came upon a delightful ProJo piece by Tim Britton about Timmy's history versus the Yankees. I enjoyed it tremendously, but I felt like he left out a lot of nerdy details that people like me so desperately need. So I'm going to fix it, and with the assistance of the ever lovely and constantly wonderful baseball-reference.com, I'm going to provide you with information you never knew you wanted to know!

First, an overview. Tim's all-time regular season stats against the Yankees is here: In 56 games (34 starts) 11-17 record, 4.90 ERA, two complete games, one save, 246 IP, 221 hits, 147 runs, 134 earned runs, 42 home runs, 122 walks, 1 intentional walk, 160 strikeouts, 13 HBP's.

Tim's first game against the Yankees was September 8th, 1995 (I was ten years old). He pitched six innings, giving up 2 hits, seven walks, and five runs (two home runs). He didn't face them again until July 15th, 1996 in a game in which he pitched five innings, giving up 13 hits, one walk, and six runs. Despite the ugly numbers, it was his first win against New York. Later that season, on September 20th, he beat them again, going 8 innings, giving up five hits, five walks, and 2 runs (1 earned).

At this point, you're terrified that I'm going to recount each of his 56 appearances. Don't worry, I won't. Some of the more interesting tidbits of Tim's career vs. the Yankees:

-From May 22 to May 28th, 1998, Tim made three consecutive appearances against the Yankees (two starts sandwiched around a relief appearance).
-His only save against NY came on August 1, 1999, coming in the 8th inning and pitching two innings of relief for Brett Saberhagen.
-May 23-26, 2002, Tim again pitched three consecutive appearances against New York (would have been four without a Blue Jays game wedged in there). The Sox won two out of those three games.
-On Sept 6th, 2003, Tim pitched seven shutout innings to earn his tenth win of the season.
-Tim's two complete games both came in 2005, and were both losses (July 17th, 5-3 loss and Sept 11th, 1-0 loss)
-The only Yankee Tim has ever intentionally walked was on May 24th, 2002. He walked Robin Ventura in the 8th inning of an eventual Red Sox win.
-The first Yankee to be hit by a Wakefield pitch was current Yankees manager Joe Girardi on May 31, 1997 during the 3rd inning.
-Other Yankee batters that have been hit are Tim Raines (May 24, 1998), Bernie Williams (Sept 9, 1998), Chuck Knoblauch (Sept 7, 2001), Nick Johnson (August 31, 2003), Gary Sheffield and Miguel Cairo (June 30, 2004), Miguel Cairo (Sept 25, 2004), Alex Rodriguez (May 27, 2005), Josh Phelps (June 1, 2007), Jose Molina (July 26, 2008), and Juan Miranda and Brett Gardner (Sept 28, 2008)

So, if I were the Yankees, I wouldn't want to face Tim in September, when he is most likely to hit a batter.
I love trivia. Sure, it may not get me anywhere in life, but who cares? Go Tim!