Yankees Series Preview by Jared Carrabis
The Rivalry Resumes

Here we go again. A new season brings a fresh start, new faces and the continuation of the biggest rivalry in professional sports. Although the rivalry has seen its peak in 2004 and has shown little sparks here and there in the years to follow, don’t expect the rivalry to come full circle in the upcoming series this weekend at Fenway Park. Both of these teams coming into this series are not playing the best baseball that they are capable of playing and the injury bug has nipped both clubs in crucial positions.


With the recent injury to the face of the New York Yankees franchise for the past decade, manager Joe Girardi has resorted to starting rookie Alberto Gonzalez at short. Gonzalez, who appeared in twelve games for the bombers in 2007, hit .071 for New York and is 2 for 6 since attempting to fill the gaping whole at shortstop in 2008. Another blow to the Yankees would be their loss of their longtime veteran catcher, Jorge Posada. Posada is not on the disabled list and will be available to DH. However, he has been diagnosed with a “dead arm” and will temporarily serve as a back up to Jose Molina.


The loss of Derek Jeter will certainly take away from the buzz in the air at Fenway, but that buzz will certainly be somewhat revived when you take a glance a little to the left of where Derek Jeter were to stand if he were there and you see Alex Rodriguez. Of course we all can’t forget that for the second time in four off seasons, the Red Sox flirted with the idea of putting Rodriguez in a Red Sox uniform. But for the second time in four seasons, Rodriguez ended up in pinstripes, only this time Boston fans could care less.


Which brings me to my next point, why did we not care? Because we resigned Mike Lowell. Unfortunately, the resigning of Mike Lowell will not work to the Red Sox advantage in this three game set against New York as Lowell was placed on the 15-Day DL prior to Thursday night’s 12-6 victory over the Detroit Tigers. The boys from ESPN’s Baseball Tonight put their two cents in on the series and said that Boston took the biggest hit injury-wise with Mike Lowell going down, I disagree. Will Mike Lowell’s offense be missed? Absolutely, but there’s no denying that the defensive ability of Kevin Youkilis will either replicate or upgrade Boston’s defense at the hot corner.


I agree that when Manny struggled last season, Mike Lowell picked up all the RBI’s that Ramirez was not driving in (120) and those RBI’s proved to be the difference maker in Boston’s rise to the top of the American League East but Mike Lowell is not out for the season. This is merely a 15-day to three week maximum injury and what Red Sox Gereral Manager Theo Epstein has managed to accomplish this past off season puts Boston in a great position to not skip a beat. By moving Youkilis over to third base you are still keeping his above average offense in the line up and you also get a Gold Glove award winning defensive stud whose first position was third base before making the move to first.


At first base, the Red Sox now have Sean Casey and if run production is the issue that Lowell’s injury imposes then a twelve run victory without Lowell certainly looks promising. Especially since three of those runs were driven in courtesy of Sean Casey himself. The Red Sox will certainly miss the defense of Kevin Youkilis at first, but the guy can’t be everywhere. Mike Lowell will without question be missed from this line up for the time it takes for him to recover, but for the time being, the Sox are in good hands.


The Yankees come to town with an identical record as the Red Sox having come off a series on the road against Kansas City in which they dropped the first two and salvaged the last game with a 6-1 win. Game one of the series will feature the red-hot ace of the Yankees pitching staff, Chien-Ming Wang. Wang will come to town with a perfect record of 2-0 and carry his impressive 1.38 ERA with him as well. However, if Wang could pitch anywhere in the world, it would not be Fenway Park as he holds a career 2-3 record at the Fens with an ERA of 6.17.


Clay Buchholz will toe the rubber for the first time against the team he grew up idolizing coming off an outing that saw Buchholz give up four runs on six hits while striking out seven. His performance was a lot better than his line indicates, as a costly error by Sean Casey and a couple “Texas leaguers” (or “Yankee hits” as I like to call them, or even bloop hits, whichever you prefer) led to a big inning for the Blue Jays. In two starts at Fenway, Buchholz is 2-0 with an ERA of 1.80 (oh yeah, and a no-hitter too.)


The middle game of the series will feature the ace that once was and the ace that still is. The veteran righty, Mike Mussina, has lost his touch the past couple seasons and is showing signs of his age catching up with him. Last season, Boston slapped around the Moose at a .396 clip while sending twelve runs across home plate in eleven and a third innings pitched. Josh Beckett will be looking to build on his last start which was his first start of the season. Hopefully the Fenway Faithful will provide enough energy for Beckett to mow down the Yankee offense as he makes his 2008 Fenway debut.


The series finale will see the likes of one of the former trading chips for Johan Santana, Phil Hughes. Opposing the 21-year old will be the pride of Japan, Daisuke Matsuzaka. Ironically enough, this series will open up with a Red Sox pitcher who grew up a Yankee fan, and will close with a Yankee pitcher who grew up a Red Sox fan. Hughes has never faced the team that he grew up idolizing in his career. If Hughes fails to locate his fastball like he has failed to do in recent starts, he will be in for a long night against this lethal Boston offense. Daisuke Matsuzaka has gotten off to a great start and will look to continue his impressive April with a win over the Yankees in the series finale.

Published on April 11, 2008

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