The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are playing on the MLB schedule on ESPN on Sunday and the game starts up at 8:00 pm ET from NY at Yankee Stadium after Masahiro Tanaka and Jon Lester faced off in the pitching matchup for the AL East rivals on Saturday and that game ended 2-1 after Mike Napoli hit a home run.
The Red Sox have been struggling this season and they are behind the Yankees and the Orioles in the wild card standings and the team is not playing up to expectations after winning the World Series. The Yankees won against the Red Sox on Friday and now they will try and take the second game of the series and they will have Tanaka on the mound and he has been fantastic, putting up an 11-2 record this season and 2.11 ERA and he is pitching very well and he is one of the main reasons why the Yankees are still in playoff contention.
The Yankees have been dealing with tons of injuries and now they need Tanaka to continue pitching well and they have CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda on the mend and they are dying for the two to come back. Tanaka was the big get for the Yankees this year in the offseason and he has been fantastic for the team and he will be facing the Sox again after pitching against them earlier in the year and he has been 6-0 since his last loss and he is first in ERA in the American League and players like David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia will have to step up to get the Red Sox out of this hole in the standings.
The Red Sox come in after getting beaten by Vidal Nuno and the next game has John Lackey and Chase Whitley in the finale and that will be on ESPN at 8 pm on Sunday night. The Yankees are ranked 19th in runs this season and 14th in batting average and the team is also 15th in on base percentage. The Yanks pitching has not been great, but it has been improving despite Sabathia and Pineda being out and the team is ranked 21st in ERA and 22nd in quality starts.
The Red Sox come in struggling on offense and the team is ranked 26th in runs and 24th in batting average and the team is also 12th in on base percentage and 28th in slugging percentage. The Red Sox come into the matchup ranked 16th in ERA and ninth in quality starts and they are 18th and 20th in WHIP and BAA this season. The team is fourth in the Al East and they are 7.5 games back, while the Orioles and Yanks are ahead in the division behind the Blue Jays.
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