Red Sox to Visit Yankee Stadium One More Time

While the Yankees are trailing the first place Tampa Bay Rays by nine and a half games they now prepare to take on arch rival The Boston Red Sox in a three game series that could be the last between the two teams in Yankee Stadium. Recently the pitching staff for the Red Sox has looked very unstable.

It all started with the bullpen that gave up runs like crazy when they needed to come into a game and shut the offense of the other team down. Then last outing for Jon Lester did not go as planed when he went against the Toronto Blue Jays on Saturday when he pitched 2.1 innings (the worst in his career), and gave up seven runs on eight hits.

The pitching match up for Tuesday was scheduled to be Josh Beckett (11-9) against The Yankees Andy Pettitte (13-9). But with tingling in his pitching hand/arm Beckett will be scratched off the starting line up, and coming off the Disabled List will be Tim Wakefield to fill in his spot.

The heated rivalry between the two teams has cooled off a bit where we have not seen much of a tussle with them this year. But with possibility of this being the last series in the House That Ruth Built could we see a fight on the filed like in 2004 with Jason Varitek and Alex Rodriguez? It’s hard to say but the way the rivalry is going I would have to say keep your eyes open for something to happen in the series.

Whatever you do though, don’t count out the Yankees just yet. There are five weeks left in the regular season where they could get on a roll and catch up with the Red Sox in the East Standings and also the American League Wild Card. They only trail the Sox in the Wild Card by five games.  

If they can take the three game series, they would only be behind by two games. The Yanks are coming off a sweep of the Baltimore Orioles on the road and have some momentum that could roll into this series.

While Tim Wakefield goes into the game on Tuesday with good memories of games at Yankee Stadium, he also has one that will haunt him for a while. It was back in 2003 Game Seven of the American League Championship where he gave up a homerun to Aaron Boone in extra innings when he came out of the bullpen to keep the game tied for the Sox.  

But if the Yankees are not to make it to the Playoffs Tim should just forget that one game and remember the two championships in the last four years. So, look for a great series to watch at Yankee Stadium between two of the best teams that were ever built in Major League Baseball starting Tuesday night at 7:05PM.