New York Yankees (65-42) v. Boston Red Sox (62-44) Series Preview
The New York Yankees haven’t had any luck against the archrival Boston Red Sox this season, but a series win this weekend over the boys from Beantown will allow the Yankees to further pad their lead in the AL East and heap even more pressure on the still-stuttering Sox.
While Red Sox fans have that 8-0 mark to brag about, their Yankee counterparts have a more important number in their corner heading into round 4 of this season’s edition of the rivalry. The Red Sox had a three-game lead over the Yankees at the All-Star break, but they come into this series 2.5 games back and just as busy trying to hold on to the wild card as they are with trying to catch the Yankees in the division.
Since opening the second half with a win over Toronto to improve to 55-34, the Red Sox are only 7-10, with those seven wins coming against Oakland and Baltimore. Boston acquired a big bat in Cleveland’s Victor Martinez on trade deadline day last Friday, and that’s worked out well thus far (Martinez is 10 for 21 with a homer and six RBI in his first four games with Boston), but with pitching not nearly as solid as it could be, Boston’s in a pretty precarious position going into this series.
The Yankees have seized upon Boston’s post-break struggles to seize first in the AL East, and though their momentum was briefly stopped by a series loss to the White Sox in Chicago last week, it’s been a mostly win-filled second half for New York thus far, as they’ve gone 13-5 since the break.
The Red Sox come in having dropped two at Tampa Bay, while the Yankees were able to move their division lead from a half-game to 2.5 games with a two-game sweep at Toronto, which included a 5-3 win on Tuesday that saw the Yankees homer three times off of Roy Halladay.
The Yankees have had some pretty forgettable performances against the Red Sox thus far this season, but with the way the two teams are playing right now, you can throw the 0-8 out of the window. The Yankees have been high on confidence since the start of the second half, and with the Red Sox not at their best right now, they should see this as a prime opportunity to take control of the division.
The Yankees are favored tonight with Joba Chamberlain going against John Smoltz, and there’s a good chance they’ll be favored in all four games, though the widest margin stands to be on Saturday, when CC Sabathia for New York and Clay Buchholz for Boston.
That being said, the Yankees have to be aware that Boston’s got the talent to snap out of a funk at any given time, and that time could be this weekend. A series win isn’t out of the question for the Red Sox, but it’d depend on Smoltz and Buchholz pitching a lot better than their last times out and the Red Sox lineup being able to string together more offense than they did in Tampa Bay. I do, however, like their chances to earn a series split with Josh Beckett and Jon Lester pitching on Friday and Sunday, and if they can channel some of that confidence that saw them take eight straight against the Yankees, then they can get at least a split, which won’t exactly help their efforts, but won’t hurt them either.
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