The best rivalry in baseball resumes with a three-game series on Friday night, with the AL East still up for grabs.
Boston has a 5.5-game lead on New York with a little more than two weeks remaining in the season. And the Red Sox would seem to have their pitching lined up to pretty much clinch the division, starting with Daisuke Matsuzaka tonight against the Yanks' Andy Pettitte. On Saturday, it's a matchup of possibly the two leading AL Cy Young Award candidates in Boston's Josh Beckett and New York's Chien-Ming Wang, followed Sunday night by a classic duel between Curt Schilling and Roger Clemens.
For New York to have any shot at the division - the Yanks lead the wild card by 3.5 games over Detroit - it would need a sweep at Fenway, an unlikely proposition considering the Red Sox are 46-26 at home and New York is .500 (36-36) on the road. However, this is Yankees-Red Sox, so anything could happen. New York leads the season series 8-7 (winning seven of the last nine), and this is the teams' final series of the regular season.
"We know we have something at stake going into Boston. We know we have to play well," said Yankees outfielder and former Red Sox icon Johnny Damon. "There's a lot of things that can happen at Fenway Park. Hopefully, it's good for us and not so good for them."
Boston is seeking its first division title since 1995 and could get a boost from the possible return of outfielder Manny Ramirez. The right-handed slugger took batting practice on Wednesday but has been out of action since straining a muscle against these Yankees on Aug. 28. Ramirez, who is hitting .392 against the Bronx Bombers and .431 against Pettitte, is officially listed as day-to-day.
Pettitte, however, as been one of the better starters in the American League recently, going 7-1 with a 2.96 ERA since Aug. 1. Matsuzaka, on the other hand, is 1-4 with a 9.57 ERA in his past five starts, a big reason the Yankees are -124 on WagerWeb.com's money line for Friday night's game. Matsuzaka is 2-1 with a 6.98 ERA against New York this year, while Pettitte is 2-1 with a 4.91 ERA against Boston.
The Yankees should get a boost in the series finale, as Clemens is expected back from injury to pitch in Sunday night's nationally televised game.
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