Sunday Night Baseball: Yankees at Red Sox
New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox (-110, 9)
The first-place Yankees conclude their huge series against second-place Boston at Fenway Park in a battle for American League bragging rights.
A matchup of former Cy Young award winners pairs C.C. Sabathia (14-7 3.58 ERA) against Josh Beckett (14-4 3.38 ERA) in a premier pitching matchup Sunday evening.
Hit parade
In the first two games of this series there have been 62 total hits. New York won Game 1 with a 20-run, 23-hit explosion, taking a 20-11 victory.
In Game 2, the Yankees put 12 hits on the scoreboard but managed to cash in just one run - a solo home run from Nick Swisher. The Bronx Bombers fell 14-1 to the home-town BoSox, who hit four home runs and scored 13 of their 14 runs with two outs.
In the blink of an eye
At the All-Star break, the Red Sox led the Yankees by three games. Entering this weekend the Yankees were 7.5 games ahead.
That is a 10.5-game swing, in little more than a month.
"They're a really good team feeling real good about themselves." Boston manager Terry Francona said following the Yankees’ four-game sweep in the Bronx two weeks ago.
"This is a race that will go down to the end," countered Yankees manager Joe Girardi. "Is the lead surprising? Yes. Is it comfortable? No, because we have a long way to go."
Here we go again
Like last year with Milwaukee, Sabathia is heating up after the All-Star break.
The big lefty pitched eight strong innings for the second straight start while winning his fourth straight start in Oakland Tuesday. He allowed two runs on five hits, issuing one walk and recording seven strikeouts.
Sabathia has hurled at least seven innings in six of his last seven starts and looks like he's beginning another second-half hot streak.
Prior to Tuesday’s win, Sabathia had struggled throughout his career when returning to his hometown of Oakland, losing four times while posting a sky-high 7.12 ERA.
“C.C.'s just one of those guys who seems to get stronger down the stretch and that's a good thing,” commented Girardi.
S-W-I-S-H!
Yankees 1B Nick Swisher has clubbed 20 homers this season, but unlike many of his teammates, he has not taken advantage of the Yankees' homer-happy ballpark. Swisher has hit the majority of his home runs on the road, with only three coming at the new Yankee Stadium. He registered New York's only score in Game 2 with a solo home run.
Gimme five
There have been only five players in major league history who have hit 20 home runs in back-to-back years while also playing at least 30 games at both first base and third base.
Boston’s Kevin Youkilis gained entry into that club when he hit his 20th home run of the season this month, joining notable sluggers Harmon Killebrew, Mike Schmidt, Dave Kingman and Al Rosen.
Youkilis added two more dingers Saturday and totaled six RBIs in the Red Sox 14-1 victory.
Form and function
Beckett left Tuesday’s game in Toronto after 5.3 innings of work with the game tied at seven. He allowed seven earned runs in the game on nine hits, including three homers and a walk. Beckett gave up two more runs on Tuesday than he had in his previous four starts combined.
Sabathia is just 2-8 with a 4.74 ERA last 10 team starts versus Boston. Conversely, Beckett stands 7-2 with a 3.39 ERA in his last nine team starts against the Pinstripes.
No edge on Sundays: the Yankees are 8-3 last 11; the Red Sox 7-2 last nine home.
