Here They Come Again

Timing is everything and the time couldn't be worse for the Yankees to be facing the Boston Red Sox in a four game series. Thankfully the meeting is taking place at Yankee Stadium and not up in Fenway. The Yankees took 2 of 3 in Boston in late May without the services of Hideki Matsui and with the services of a less than 100% Gary Sheffield. Now in addition two both Matsui and Sheffield possibly out for the season the lineup may be further shorthanded due to stomach ailments that have beset Alex Rodriguez and Jason Giambi. Both are hopeful of playing tonight, but only their stomachs know for sure. A-Rod played in Sunday's finale in Baltimore and wished he hadn't.

On top of the bug that A-Rod and Giambi caught, Derek Jeter caught a Rodrigo Lopez fastball on his right thumb yesterday. He left the game immediately and was taken for x-rays which turned out to be negative. Though Joe Torre may feel otherwise, Jeter definitely wants in tonight's lineup.

Timing was also bad for A-Rod's illness. He had been red hot when the shit almost really did hit the fan. Prior to the last two games, he had gone 16-46 (.348) w/4 HR, 14 RBI and 11 runs scored.

"A must win" is probably too strong a phrase for tonight's game, but it's as close to describing the need for winner the first of this four game set. The Yankees need Mike Mussina to do what he has done all season, throw a quality start and give the bullpen some rest. One bit of good news is that Mariano Rivera expects to be ready in case the Yankees need to protect a lead late.

The Yankee killers, David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez, come into this series having both homered on Sunday. Ortiz has to be ecstatic about facing the Yankees since he is having a less than Ortiz-like season. He's hitting just .261 though he does have 16 HR and 50 RBI. Against the Yankees Ortiz is hitting .333-2-10. Against the rest of the American League Ortiz is batting just .249.

Ramirez destroyed the Yankees during the recent trip to Fenway and showed them up in the process with a very elongated home run trot (more like a walk). Ramirez is hitting .297 with 14 home runs, but has put up a sub par 37 RBI. Considering he had 4 HR and 10 RBI in that series in Fenway, it really shows you just how sub par his production has been. Overall, Manny is hitting .500-5-13 against the Bombers and just .263-9-24 against the rest of the American League.

Josh Beckett gets the nod for the Sox tonight. Beckett worked 7 innings in the Sox 14-3 victory of the Yankees on May 9. He followed that up with another 3 wins in a row, allowing just 7 earned runs in 30 innings. Vernon Wells and the Blue Jays hammered him in his last start. The Jays hit 4 home runs and put 7 runs on Beckett in 4-plus innings. He's now allowed 14 home runs in his last 8 starts.

Pitching Match Ups for the Rest of the Series

Tuesday - Chien-Ming Wang tries to bounce back from his shaky outing against the Tigers. He did come up big by saving Saturday's game in Baltimore. The Red Sox send 22-year old David Pauley to the hill. A pitching shortage forced the Sox to recall Pauley from Double-A to face the Blue Jays last Wednesday. The Sox won 8-6, but Pauley didn't figure in the decision after giving up 6 runs in 4 1-3 innings.

Wednesday - Joe Torre hopes that Jaret Wright can continue to step it up when he takes the mound on Wednesday. In his last 6 starts, Wright has gone 3-1, 3.21. Wright has not pitched past the 6th inning in any of those starts which puts more pressure on Wang to go longer in Tuesday's game in order to save the bullpen.
Everyone's favorite asshole (well it's head-to-head with Barry Bonds) Curt Schilling goes for the Red Sox. The Yankees battered Schilling around in a 7-3 win at home on May 10, but Schilling dominated them over 8 innings in a 9-5 win at Fenway on May 22nd. Schilling was 2-0, 1.61 after his 1st two starts of the season. He's 6-2 since then, but his ERA is 4.41 over that time.

Thursday - Randy Johnson vs Tim Wakefield. This is the one match up that's hard to figure. The Yankees don't know what they are going to get out of Johnson. Will this be one of those times where they batter Wakefield or he dominates them. Johnson was on the wrong end of that 14-3 defeat to Beckett in early May, never making it out of the 4th inning. He was dominant against Boston last year, but was pitching with much more confidence. Basically it's a roll of the dice.

Wakefield has already faced the Yankees three times. He was a win, a loss, and a no-decision to show for it. The win and the no-decision came in his first two times out, both quality starts. Maybe the 3rd time was the charm as the Yankees hammered for 7 runs, 6 earned, in 6-plus innings. Alex Rodriguez punctuated the night with a 3-run homer.

As they have in the series against Detroit and Baltimore, the Yankees are going to need Melky Cabrera, Kevin Thompson, Andy Phillips and whoever else might be in there to step it up big time.