If the Red Sox beat the Yankees, they will have earned it
By Cody Rivera
The Boston Red Sox will send two of their shakiest starters to the mound at Yankee Stadium, which could spell disaster for them.
The greatest and fiercest rivalry in all of sports is set to resume this week, but this time it will be taking place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx.
Since the last meeting between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees – a mid-April series at Fenway Park in Boston – these two hated rivals have taken completely separate paths to get to the Bronx. The Yankees have been on an absolute tear, winning 15 of their last 16 games, while the Red Sox have somewhat been scraping along, just barely clinging to first place in the AL East. After roaring to a 17-2 record to start the season (the best in franchise history), Boston has since cooled off a bit. In their last 15 games, they are just 8-7.
The storylines coming into this series – which will take place on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday – couldn’t be better for the state of this rivalry. The two teams are separated in the AL East standings by just a single game. Boston sits in first place at 25-9, while the scalding hot Yankees are right on their tail at 24-10. There’s also plenty of friction between them right now, considering there was a hideous brawl between Boston’s Joe Kelly and New York’s Tyler Austin during the last meeting. Tensions will be running high, if not between the players then definitely between the fans, at Yankee Stadium this week.
But even though they are in first place, the Red Sox should be considered underdogs in this series. If they want to keep their hold on first place in the division, they will have to slow down the red-hot Yankees with two of their shakiest starting pitchers on the mound in Games 1 and 2.
On Tuesday, Boston will send Drew Pomeranz to the bump, who has an ERA if 6.14 and tends to give up runs in the first inning. On Wednesday, David Price will take the mound. Price started the season well, but his ERA has since ballooned to 5.11, and his record is currently 2-4. He most likely will struggle in New York against the Yankee big bats like Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gary Sanchez, not to mention Didi Gregorius, who surprisingly leads this Yankee team with 10 homeruns.
Boston will have former Cy Young winner Rick Porcello pitching in the third game, but the Yankees will have already taken over first place if Pomeranz and Price can’t get the job done in the first two games.
Scoring a lot of runs will most likely be the only way the Red Sox win this series, and that will be an extremely tall task in itself, as the Yankees will be sending Luis Severino (2.11), Masahiro Tanaka (4.39) and C.C. Sabathia (1.39) to the mound.
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The Red Sox lineup will have to do their best to be productive in this series. Fortunately for them, JD Martinez, Mookie Betts, Hanley Ramirez and Rafael Devers are all swinging the bat pretty well right now. But if they can come out of the Bronx with two out of three wins against the ever-dangerous Yankees, especially with Pomeranz and Price on the mound in two of the three games, the Red Sox will certainly have earned those victories.