Rivalry Comes To New Stadium

Sunday's rainout gave the Yankees a chance to pause a regroup ahead the resumption of the second part of the rivalry. And gave Nick Swisher's bruised elbow some more time to heal.

Having won four of their last five, including Saturday's loss, the Yankees are the hotter team entering this season. Of course, they had won three straight before being swept in Fenway last weekend, but could not keep pace with the Sox, who were in the middle of their 11-game winning streak.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have lost three of four and concerns continue to grow at David Ortiz's slow start.

Of course none of that matters when these teams go head-to-head and it will be interesting how the new Yankee Stadium and its possible wind tunnel to right field will have on how these games get played.

The two things we know is every at-bat will be a battle and any pitcher who can pitch effectively through at least six innings will give his team a great shot at the W. Though the Yankees might need their starters to go seven, given the state of their bullpen.

The Yankees will be turning to their two youngest starters, Phil Hughes, 22, and Joba Chamberlain, 23. They got the Yankees going on their recent four-game winning streak with two tremendous starts against the Tigers last week. Of course they'll have to better and very efficient with their pitches. They go against the Sox's struggling aces: Jon Lester and Josh Beckett.

The Red Sox make pitchers work and will, if nothing else, try to grind down the youngsters and get to the Yankees' soft underbelly: the bullpen. I've gone on and on about how bad this unit has become and we all know that if we have to see the middle relief for any extended period in this series, the Yankees are in trouble. The hope is they can get through two innings OK to get to Rivera. One inning might even be a lot, though the way Phil Coke has pitched, there is hope.

The offense will need to continue to produce like it did during the winning streak, when it went 18-for-37 (.486) with runners in scoring position. Against the Red Sox at Fenway, the Yankees had tons of opportunities to score, but struggled to come up with the big hit to take the pressure off both the starter and bullpen. That can't happen again this weekend.

The Yankees can get a measure of revenge for that embarrassing sweep, but the weakness of the bullpen means they a small margin of error. Everything has to go perfectly. The starters have to be strong and go deep, the offense has to continually produce runs and most importantly, the bullpen is going to have to get outs.

Up Next
Monday vs. Red Sox, 7:05 p.m., YES, NESN
Lester (1-2, 5.40 ERA) vs. Hughes (0-0, 0.00)

Hughes was brilliant in his first start of the years against the Tigers Tuesday, but he faces a much tougher test against the Sox. Lester has had two good starts all season, both at Fenway. He's been hit hard the rest of the time, including Wednesday's no-decision against the Indians, in which he allowed five runs on seven hits in six innings.