Ranking the Top 10 Pitchers in Yankees and Red Sox History
The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are always comparing themselves to the other. The one team the Yankees worry about is the Sox.
So, of course, Yankee fans are freaking out about the Red Sox additions of Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez.
As the two premier franchises in the American League, each team has an impressive resume when it comes to great pitchers. Some of the very best hurlers of all time come from Boston and New York.
The Yanks and Sox have a storied history in the pitching department. Here are the best 10…
10. Ron Guidry
1 of 10
In his first full season, Guidry won 18 games for the Yankees and led them to their first World Series title in 15 years.
In 1978, the ace was 25-3 with a 1.73 ERA, and the Yankees took the Series from the Dodgers for the second straight year. He earned a Cy Young award for his efforts.
His career postseason record is 5-2 with a 3.02 ERA.
Three times in Guidry's career he won 20 games. His career record stands at 170-91 with a 3.29 ERA. He spent all 14 seasons in pinstripes.
9. Lefty Gomez
2 of 10
Gomez pitched 13 seasons for the Yankees, collecting 189 wins and posting a 3.34 ERA with 1,468 strikeouts.
He led the Yankees to six World Series titles, including four straight from 1936-1939.
His playoff numbers are outstanding. He had a 6-0 record with a 2.86 ERA in seven World Series starts.
Lefty Gomez was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972 by the Veterans Committee.
8. Pedro Martinez
3 of 10
Martinez won two Cy Young Awards in his storied career.
He won a whopping 76 percent of his games and held opposing batters to an insane 6.8 hits per nine innings during his tenure in Boston.
He was a key member of the 2004 World Series championship team. His postseason record stands at 6-4 with a 3.64 ERA.
He used a variety of fastballs and breaking pitches with different arm angles, while keeping pinpoint control. He had great movement on his pitches. He simply is one of the greatest Red Sox players of all time.
.jpg?w=256)
.jpg?w=256)
7. Red Ruffing
4 of 10
Our first of three pitchers to play for both teams, Ruffing fared much better in the Bronx.
He started out with the Red Sox and struggled mightily. After two straight seasons of 20-plus losses, he was traded to New York.
All he needed was the change of scenery as Ruffing would go on to win 231 games over 15 years in New York. For his career he had 273 wins in his 22-year career.
He led the Yankees to six World Series championships in the 1932, 1936-1939 and 1941 seasons, posting a 7-2 record with a 2.63 ERA in 10 World Series starts.
He ranks second all-time in wins in Yankee history. Ruffing was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1967.
6. Andy Pettitte
5 of 10
Pettitte had a record of 203-112, a 3.98 ERA and 1,823 strikeouts as a Yankee from 1995-2003 and 2007-2010.
He helped lead the Yankees to five World Series championships in 1996, 1998-2000 and 2009.
He holds the all-time record for most playoff starts and innings pitched. He also has the greatest public apology for using performance enhancing drugs of all time. The 2011 Yankees are hoping that Pettitte has a change of heart and comes out of retirement.
The rotation sure could use him.
5. Mariano Rivera
6 of 10
Rivera is sitting on 559 career saves, trailing only Trevor Hoffman (601) for the most all time.
He has been part of five World Series championships as an essential piece of the puzzle. His cutter is perhaps the best pitch ever thrown, and hitters still have difficulty with it.
Rivera still is dominant to this day and is a sure-fire Hall of Famer.
4. Babe Ruth
7 of 10
We all know how great of a hitter Ruth was as both a member of the Red Sox and Yankees.
Babe was the first ballplayer to hit the 30-home run mark, then the 40, 50 and 60 ones. The 54 he hit in 1920 in his first season with the Yankees surpassed the total for every other American League team combined.
But Ruth was a great pitcher too.
He had a career record of 94-46 with a ERA of 2.28. He had a perfect 5-0 record with the Yankees before focusing on hitting.
That turned out pretty well.
3. Whitey Ford
8 of 10
I’ll start off talking about one of the greatest pitchers of all time with this nugget: He has the most wins in Yankee history with 236—despite serving in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
He led the Yankees to a World Series title in his first year back.
Ford ended up playing in a whopping 11 World Series championships, winning six of them. His record in the postseason was 10-8 with a 2.71 ERA in 22 games started.
He was the 1961 AL Cy Young Award winner and an eight-time All-Star. He would play all 16 seasons of his career in the Bronx.
His career résumé was pretty impressive: 236-106, 2.75 ERA, 1,956 Ks, 156 complete games.
He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1974.
2. Roger Clemens
9 of 10
He used to just be hated by Red Sox fans; now the whole world despises him.
But "The Rocket" will go down in history as one of the greatest pitchers of all time.
He won a Cy Young and MVP with his performance in 1986 for the Red Sox. Clemens tied Cy Young for the most wins in a Boston uniform with 192. He has the most shutouts in Boston history with 38.
In six seasons wearing pinstripes, Clemens went 83-42, while averaging over eight strikeouts per game.
His dominant fastball allowed him to blow by hitters. He will be a first-ballot Hall of Famer when the time comes.
1. Cy Young
10 of 10
How does a guy who never won a Cy Young Award make the list?
Maybe it's because it was named after him!
Young is the most consistent pitcher of all time. He holds all-time records for wins (511), innings pitched (7,355), games started (815) and complete games (749). In 1904, he issued only 29 walks in 380 innings.
In eight seasons with the Red Sox, he went 192-112 with a 2.00 ERA. He had 275 complete games over that span. He only gave up 34 total home runs over that span.
He is one of the top-five greatest pitchers of all time and the best pitcher the Yanks or Sox have ever had.
.jpg?w=480)
.jpg?w=480)
.jpg?w=480)
