[Tommy]

By Michael Robinson.

The greatest rivalry in professional sports resumes tonight when the Yankees invade Beantown for a short two-game series.

The Yankees and Red Sox are in a statistical tie for first place in the AL East as New York is 13-10 and Boston is 14-11. These are teams going in opposite directions however, as Boston has lost four out of five games, while the Yankees have won six out of their last eight games.

The pitching match-ups for the two-game set are as follows. Tonight is New York’s Chien-Ming Wang against Boston’s Tim Wakefield. Wang is 1-1 on the year with three no-decisions, while Wakefield is just 1-4, but has a hard luck ERA of 3.90. Part of the problem with Wakefield is getting used to a new catcher in Josh Bard who has had trouble holding on to the knuckleball.

The Yankees are a slight favorite in this game at -112, while the Over / Under is 10.5.

Tomorrow night, the Yankees send Shawn Chacon (3-1) to the mound versus Boston’s Josh Beckett. Beckett is also 3-1 on the year, but he got bombarded for eight runs in less than four innings in his last start against Cleveland.

Of course, the history of this rivalry dates back to the beginning of this century. When the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920, it started the “Curse of the Bambino” that saw the Red Sox not win the World Series until 2004.

More recently, Red Sox fans grew to hate the Yankees more than ever when they saw former legends like Roger Clemens and Wade Boggs jump ship to the Bronx Bombers. To make matters worse, both of those players won championships playing in the pinstripes.

The poster boy of this rivalry now is Johnny Damon. Damon was one of the most popular players on the Red Sox for the past four years. Fans loved his hard playing style on the field, and the ladies loved his long hair and heartthrob status.

Boston refused to match the free agent contract that New York offered Damon, so he took the money and ran. The Red Sox acquired Coco Crisp from Cleveland to be their new center fielder and he looked really good before injuring his thumb.

With the Crisp out of the lineup, the Red Sox have had trouble scoring runs. Boston is averaging 4.7 runs per game, compared to the Yankees potent line-up which puts up over six runs per contest. The Yankees bats can explode in any given game, and Boston must get great pitching to keep them at bay. We will see what happens starting tonight.

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