Since Hurricane Irene forced the Boston Red Sox to play a doubleheader on Saturday in which she tried to stop as well, they got to enjoy an extra day off yesterday. Couple that with today’s scheduled day off and the Red Sox should be well rested for the upcoming three-game set with the New York Yankees that begins on Tuesday.
The Yankees won’t get into town until probably early Tuesday morning since they are playing the Baltimore Orioles again. They’ll have also played three games in two days with no rest while the Red Sox will have had two days off to recover from theirs.
The Red Sox have already won the season series with the Yanks since they hold a 10-2 advantage right now. We know you can throw that out the window when these two teams play and the Red Sox will definitely be more rested.
The Yankees will come into this series either down two games to the Red Sox or three games. The lead sits at 2.5 games right now but with the Red Sox off today, the best the Yanks can do is gain a ½ game or at worst lose ½ game.
What makes this series interesting is what could happen if the Red Sox sweep the series. Say the Tampa Bay Rays win on the same three nights, they would cut the Yankees lead in the wild card to just three games. Obviously the Rays wouldn’t get any closer to the Red Sox at this point but it would set up an interesting month of September to say the least.
After the Texas Rangers come to town this weekend, the Red Sox will finish up the 2011 season against all of their AL East rivals. They have six games against the Toronto Blue Jays (four road, two home), seven games against the Rays (three road, four home), three against the Yankees (all road games) and seven games against the Orioles (three road, four home).
So if you think the Red Sox have the AL East wrapped up, I wouldn’t count your chickens before the hatch. By no means am I saying they can’t do it because they can. What I’m saying is that I wouldn’t expect any of those four teams to lay down for the Red Sox. All of them would like nothing better than to play spoilers for the Red Sox winning the division.
With the Red Sox having the scheduled off day today, we’ll be back in a short while with the pitching matchups for the series with the Yanks. But for now enjoy the overnight links from the media.
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Light in August: Red Sox rotation takes turn for better [Alex Speier – WEEI.com]
Catcher still gets geared up [Boston Globe]
Perfect Sox storm? [Boston Globe]
Streaky Carl Crawford focusing on fine finish [Boston Herald]
Erik Bedard, John Lackey bolstering Sox rotation [Boston Herald]
Theo saved Ellsbury from Gonzalez trade [Boston Herald]
Lack of explosiveness [Boston Herald]
Middle men [Boston Herald]
Sox benefit from two-day break before Yankees [CSN New England]
Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees have plenty to play for [ESPN Boston]
Twenty games later, the Red Sox get a rest [Extra Bases]
Jason Varitek’s Career Has New Life, Continues to Provide Invaluable Presence for Red Sox [NESN.com]
Justin Verlander Latest Pitcher to Prove Hurlers Deserve Most Valuable Player Award Consideration [NESN.com]
Red Sox enjoying rare back-to-back days off [Projo Sox Blog]
Ortiz picking up where he left off [Projo Sox Blog]
Lowrie’s season has been uneven, but he’s helped Sox plenty [Providence Journal]
Former Red Sox return for hallmark telethon [RedSox.com]
A look at the making of the new Josh Beckett [Rob Bradford – WEEI.com]
For more slices of Red Sox goodness, head over to the Boston Globe, Boston Herald, CSN New England, ESPN Boston, NESN, Providence Journal, RedSox.com and WEEI websites.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
