Red Sox Visit Yankee Stadium

The Boston Red Sox will head to Yankee Stadium for a four-game series against their bitter rival over the holiday weekend. And while the Red Sox are still ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, the two clubs are coming off very different results in their last game.

New York put up nine runs in the seventh inning against the Texas Rangers on Wednesday night en route to a convincing 18-7 win. Yankees starting pitcher Sidney Ponson was knocked around for seven earned runs on nine hits over just five innings of work in that contest, but his teammates’ bats saved him from being tagged with the loss.

Leading the way on offense for New York was Jason Giambi, who blasted his 18th home run and picked up six RBI in the win. Alex Rodriguez also homered in the contest (his 17th of the year), while Johnny Damon picked up three hits and scored three runs. The high-scoring victory salvaged something for the Yankees in that series – they had fallen in the first two games to the Rangers by scores of 2-1 and 3-2.

Boston again went down to defeat versus the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays on Wednesday, surrendering six runs in the seventh inning in the 7-6 loss. The BoSox had managed to get to Rays ace Scott Kazmir earlier in the contest (scoring four runs over the first five innings), but their bullpen wasted a solid outing from Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Dustin Pedroia was the bright spot at the plate for Boston on Wednesday, hitting his ninth home run of the season, collecting three other hits, and scoring three times. J.D. Drew had two hits and an RBI in the loss. The Red Sox were swept by the Rays in the big three-game series, and heading into Thursday’s game they’ve dropped five in a row.

First pitch for the Boston/New York series opener on Thursday is set for 7:05pm ET, with Jon Lester taking on Andy Pettitte. Lester (6-3, 3.48 ERA) is coming off a poor outing against the Houston Astros in which he allowed six earned runs on nine hits over five innings. Pettitte (9-5, 3.98 ERA) has won four straight and hasn’t lost since May 17.

Friday’s holiday matchup is set to get underway at 1:05pm ET, with Saturday’s game at 3:55pm ET, and Sunday’s series finale starting at the marquee time of 8:05pm ET. Probable pitchers for those three games are Josh Beckett (7-5, 3.65 ERA) vs. Darrell Rasner (4-6, 4.42 ERA), Justin Masterson (4-2, 3.75 ERA) vs. Mike Mussina (10-6, 3.87 ERA), and finally Tim Wakefield (5-6, 3.72 ERA) vs. Joba Chamberlain (2-2, 2.22 ERA).

The Yankees and Red Sox have already met five times on the field this season, with Boston winning three of those games. The teams played a two-game series at Yankee Stadium in the middle of April, with each club winning one of those matchups. Fans of scoring (and those looking for the OVER in their baseball odds) got a treat in that series – the teams combined to score 36 runs in two contests.