New York Yankees: Just How Important Is This Series Against the Boston Red Sox?

Whenever the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox face off against each other, you know it's going to be a great series that has the potential to be special. Not only due to their historic rivalry, but because of how close the games usually are between the two American League juggernauts.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, the matchup has been anything but even this past season.

Their record against the Red Sox this season has been a nauseating 2-10.

The unfortunate thing which is staring the city of New York and its beloved Yankees in the face, is that the Red Sox are easily more talented than the Yankees and have shown that with the aforementioned dominant record against them.

Taking that into account, the most disturbing statistic is likely how well the Red Sox handle the Yankees ace, C.C. Sabathia. When facing the Red Sox as a Yankee, Sabathia has a 7.20 ERA, most recently giving up eight runs in a 10-4 loss to the Yankees' long-time rivals. 

To put that into perspective, Sabathia's pitching against other teams has fans and analysts chattering that he could be up for the Cy Young Award...if he figures out a way to handle the Red Sox.

This statement proves just how stacked the Red Sox are from top to bottom of the lineup. With players like Jacoby Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz, Carl Crawford and Adrian Gonzalez to name several, the Red Sox are a nightmare for any pitcher to go up against.

They are loaded with talent and the Yankees are getting to a point where, while they are undoubtedly talented as well, they are no where near as talented as the Red Sox when comparing the two rosters.

From a pitching standpoint, outside of Sabathia, the Yankees have essentially been leaning on the overachieving Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, who are 38 and 35 years old respectively. Sure, the team still has Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes, who are likely to become reliable starters at some point but not experienced enough to be relied on when it really matters in the postseason.

The most disappointing of all, however, is the erratic pitching of A.J. Burnett, who as of right now is the Yankees' No. 2 starter. While he has only faced the Red Sox once this year, he gave up seven runs, en route to an 11-4 Yankees loss. Not exactly numbers that scream No. 2 starter.

Compare that pitching staff to that of Boston's Josh Beckett, John Lackey, Erik Bedard, Jon Lester and Andrew Miller, and Yankees fans have even more to worry about.

Sure, the Yankees won Game 1 against the Red Sox with a narrow 3-2 victory and were very close to winning it last night had the inexperienced Eduardo Nunez not made a fielding error and actually covered third base. (A play which Alex Rodriguez definitely would've made.)

However, the series is a small sampling of the big picture which makes it sadly obvious that the Yankees have been owned by the Red Sox this season. Getting Alex Rodriguez back in the lineup should give them more firepower and a better fielder at third base than Eduardo Nunez, but it's painfully clear that the Yankees have plenty of other problems which need to be addressed.

With Sabathia struggling against the Red Sox and Burnett against virtually everyone else, Yankees fans have to wonder if their time of being on top of the American League East is coming to a cataclysmic close.