Reeling Red Sox Visit First Place Yankees August 17-19

Ah yes, let the four hour baseball games commence as the Red Sox head into Yankee Stadium for the second time this year for a three game set.

The first place Yanks have been winning again as of late after stumbling against a few sub-par teams. The Bombers just took three out of four against the Rangers and go into this series with a bit of momentum. However, they have been dealing with injuries to Alex Rodriguez and pitcher Andy Pettitte, and their number one CC Sabathia. While they expect CC to only miss one more start and Pettitte and A-Rod to be back sometime in September, third base fill ins Casey McGeehee and the red-hot Eric Chavez have filled in nicely in A-Rod’s absence. We’ll see David Phelps, who had a good start against the Rangers, fill in for CC once again in this series. The Sox may run into a familiar face if Phelps is on a pitch count or struggles and the Yankees have to bring in the newly signed Derek Lowe.

As for the Red Sox, well…it has been a struggle. Pitchers Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, both of whom will pitch this weekend, are a combined 11-20 and for those guys and Red Sox Nation, that’s not good enough. Combine that with a sub .500 record and rumors of the players meeting with ownership to mutiny manager Bobby Valentine is not a good mixture for success.

Here is this weekend’s schedule and pitching matchups for the Yanks and the Sox:

Friday, August 17: Red Sox (Morales 3-3) vs. Yankees (Hughes 11-10) 7:05 p.m. My9

Saturday, August 18: Red Sox (Lester 6-10) vs. Yankees (Phelps 3-3) 4:05 p.m. FOX

Sunday, August 19: Red Sox (Beckett 5-10) vs. Yankees (Kuroda 11-8) 8:00 p.m. ESPN

 

Yankee Stadium photo by Andrew Dominick