Think of the greatest rivalries in sport. Duke-UNC, Celtic-Rangers, India and Pakistan. Along with the greatest rivalries, a place must be set aside for baseball’s greatest rivalry, and maybe the biggest rivalry in sport across the pond. The “Yankees” and the “Red Sox”. This week (Tuesday –Thursday) the two teams square off in a three game series, with just 1.5 games separating the two sides in the “AL East” standings. However, with both teams almost guaranteed, bar a minor miracle to achieve a postseason spot, it begs the question, does this series matter? The answer, truthfully, from a baseball viewpoint, no, it doesn’t matter, especially for the Red Sox who hold a 10-2 advantage in the season series thus far.
For the Yankees, from a psychological stance, their maybe something residing over this series for the “Bronx Bombers”. The aforementioned losing record against Boston, staff ace C.C Sabathia having astronomically inflated numbers against the Red Sox in comparison to the rest of the league, and as has been the case for months now, the rest of the Yankees starters audition for the role of number 2 starter, behind Sabathia.
For Sabathia, his numbers against Boston read 0-4, 7.20 ERA in 4 starts. Compare these numbers to his 17-3, 2.80 he’s surrendering to the rest of the teams combined. With Sabathia’s abysmal postseason numbers (prior to his move to New York in 2009) in addition to these numbers against Boston, it would appear he may have a small case of “Lee Westwood syndrome”. A syndrome known to deteriorate your sporting skills on the biggest stage, or a bigger stage. The Inability to perform, or a consistent stumbling block in the way of a specific goal. For Westwood it’s “Golfing majors”. For Sabathia, it’s Boston.
The Yankee ace will pitch game 1 of the series, where he takes on John Lackey, whose season has been a replica of Sabathia’s 4 starts against the Sox. Lackey’s 5.98 era, is indicative of how poor Lackey has been. Lackey, who signed a lucrative 5 year $82million in the winter of 2009 is in his second year, still finding it difficult to settle into a park, where he failed to have much success as an Angel.
Game two, sees the complete paradigm shift, with Josh Beckett (10 wins 2.58 era) taking the mound for Boston. Beckett whose overwhelmed the loaded Yankee lineup on 4 separate occasions, the first meeting providing the stepping stone to kick-start the Red Sox season back in April. Beckett’s 8 inning, 4 hit shutout of the Yankees gave the Sox their 2nd win of the season, propelling them to 2-7 on the year.
A sub-plot for the series is the race for American League MVP, with Yankees Curtis Granderson (leads the league in Home runs, RBI, runs), and the Boston duo of Jacoby Ellsbury (and Adrian Gonzalez (leads the league in Batting average, 2nd in RBI) all squaring off in a bid to cement their position as the frontrunner for the award.
To many, especially Sox manager Terry Francona, winning the division isn’t imperative in a division where you’re all but assured of the wildcard. For the Red Sox, who won the World Series from the wild card in ’04 and the won it again in ’07, this time after winning the division. For Francona, creating your rotations for your pitchers, and keeping players fresh for the postseason is the more important in this seasons’ final weeks.
With all that being said. It’s always fun to beat the Yankees.
* Apologies for the lack of advanced statistics, due to limited internet connectivity, could only use statistics from memory.
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