The Boston Red Sox and NY Yankees are playing live on the MLB schedule on Friday night and the game from Yankee Stadium is live at 7:05 pm ET for the AL East rivalry series gets going with Brandon Workman and Vidal Nuno on the mound for the matchup.
The Yankees come into the game after a win against the Toronto Blue Jays and that helped keep the team from losing five games in a row and now they have the Sox coming in. The Yankees and the Orioles are trailing the Jays in the division and right now the Red Sox are struggling and a good series here from the Yankees could push them back too far to get back into the divisional race. The Yanks are three games under .500 right now and heading into Saturday they know Masahiro Tanaka will be on the mound and he faces off against Jon Lester in that game.
Hiroki Kuroda helped stop the bleeding for the Yankees and they won 5-3 against the Jays to avoid getting swept and now the team has three against the Sox and one is on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball. The Red Sox are eight games back and the Rays are out of it at 12 back and now the division race could get tight at the top if the Yankees and Orioles get closer to the Jays. The Yankees have dealt with a ton of injuries over the past month and now they are starting to build, as CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda are still out of action and that could lead to moves later in the season.
The team comes into the matchup ranked 20th in the league in runs scored and 14th in batting average and they are 17th in on base percentage and slugging. The Yankees are 21st in the league in ERA and same in quality starts and they are also 19th in BAA and 15th in WHIP this year. The Red Sox come into the matchup ranked 25th in the league in runs and 23rd in batting average and the team is also 26th in slugging percentage. The pitching has been keeping the team afloat for now and they are 14th in ERA and ninth in quality starts and 20th in BAA.
The team won their finale against the Seattle Mariners after losing the first two games and giving up 20 runs and they gave up 24 in the series in Safeco. The team got a win from Clay Buchholz and a loss for Hisashi Iwakuma and now the red Sox are looking to keep things going. The Yankees won five of the first seven games from the Red Sox in April and now they are coming into this matchup needing to get back on track, especially with the July schedule coming right around the corner.
Check here for the Boston Red Sox and NY Yankees live coverage from MLB.