Boston Red Sox (34-26) @ New York Yankees (33-25)
Tim Wakefield (2-1, 4.40) @ A.J. Burnett (6-3, 3.86)
7:05 PM EDT | Yankee Stadium (Bronx, N.Y.)
TV: NESN, YES, ESPN RADIO: WEEI 850, WWZN 1510
INJURY REPORT
Boston: Rich Hill, left elbow sprain (Placed on the 15-day DL on June 3, retroactive to June 2) Franklin Morales, left forearm strain (Placed on the 15-day DL on May 29, retroactive to May 26); Darnell McDonald, sore left quad (Placed on the 15-day DL on May 26); Daisuke Matsuzaka, sprained elbow (Placed on the 15-day DL on May 17, transferred to the 60-day DL on June 3); Junichi Tazawa, right elbow surgery (placed on the 60-day DL on March 26)
New York: Joba Chamberlain, strained flexor muscle (Placed on the 15-day DL on June 8); Rafael Soriano, right elbow inflammation (Placed on the 15-day DL on May 17, retroactive to May 14); Eric Chavez, fractured fifth metatarsal in left foot (Placed on 15-day DL on May 6); Phil Hughes, right shoulder inflammation (Placed on 15-day DL on April 15, transferred to 60-day DL on May 25); Colin Curtis, dislocated right shoulder (Placed on 60-day DL on March 30, retroactive to March 22); Reegie Corona, fractured right elbow (Placed on 60-day DL on March 30, retroactive to March 22); Damaso Marte, left shoulder labrum inflammation (Placed on 60-day DL on March 30, retroactive to March 22); Pedro Feliciano, left rotator cuff strain (Placed on 15-day DL on March 30, retroactive to March 22, transferred to 60-day DL on April 15)
GAME NOTES
The Boston Red Sox take a four-game winning streak into the middle game of this series against the New York Yankees. After getting to Freddy Garcia early and often, the Red Sox held onto a 6-4 victory. A.J. Burnett takes the mound for the Yankees tonight. Burnett is winless in his last eight starts against the Red Sox (seven with the Yankees), and is 0-3 with a 7.59 ERA during that stretch. Burnett has been feast or famine during his Yankee tenure – sometimes he pitches like Cy Young, sometimes like Sy Sperling. The 2011 version of Burnett could be following his pattern of 2010: in his first 12 games of 2010 Burnett was 6-3 with a 3.72 ERA, and in his first 12 games of 2011 he is 6-3 with a 3.86 ERA. In 2010, Burnett finished the season with a 4-12 record and a 6.34 ERA, so here’s hoping that Burnett continues with that trend. There are quite a few Red Sox batters who have had success against A.J., most notably Carl Crawford (.315, 17-54 with one home run), Jacoby Ellsbury (.308, 8-26 with one home run) and Dustin Pedroia (.300, 9-30, 10 walks and two home runs). David Ortiz also has three home runs and five doubles (10-39) against Burnett but has struck out 12 times against him. The Yankees claimed Jeff Marquez off waivers from the Chicago White Sox. Marquez will be in uniform tonight, with Hector Noesi heading back to the minors after pitching six innings of stellar relief last night. And it surely looks like the Yankees need relief help; the Yankees placed Joba Chamberlain on the 15-day DL with a strained flexor muscle. Facing the Yankees will be Tim Wakefield. Wakes has an 11-17 mark against the Yankees in his career with a 4.90 ERA but will be making his first start in the new Yankee Stadium. Wakefield pitched two scoreless innings in the Red Sox loss against the Yankees at Fenway Park on April 9th. Watch out for Alex Rodriguez tonight – A-Rod has a career .368 batting average against Wakefield (7-19) with one home run. Mark Teixeira (who will start tonight depite being hit on the knee by a Jon Lester pitch last night) has two career home runs against Wakefield.
Lineups
Red Sox
- Jacoby Ellsbury, CF
- Dustin Pedroia, 2B
- Adrian Gonzalez, 1B
- Kevin Youkilis, 3B
- David Ortiz, DH
- Carl Crawford, LF
- Marco Scutaro, SS
- J.D. Drew, RF
- Jason Varitek, C
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New York
- Derek Jeter, SS
- Curtis Granderson, CF
- Mark Teixeira, 1B
- Alex Rodriguez, DH
- Robinson Cano, 2B
- Nick Swisher, RF
- Brett Gardner, LF
- Eduardo Nunez, SS
- Francisco Cervelli, C
Fun Facts
– With the save in last night’s game, Jonathan Papelbon reached 200 saves faster than any player in major league history. Paps achieved the feat in 359 games (356 relief appearances), besting the previous mark of 382 games set by Mariano Rivera. Dennis Eckersley reached 200 saves in his 324th relief appearance, but had been a starter for the better part of his career.
– According to the Elias Sports Bureau, with the win last night Jon Lester became the first Red Sox starter to post five consecutive victories against the Yankees since Reggie Cleveland accomplished the feat from 1975 to 1977.
– On June 8, 1950, the Red Sox scored 29 runs on 28 hits (both team records) in a 29-5 rout of the St. Louis Browns.
– New York beat Boston 16-8 in the Media Game held today at Yankee Stadium. So they’ve got that going for them. Which is nice.
– Don’t forget to join us in our live chat tonight, held in conjunction with our friends at the Yankee fan site It’s About the Money Stupid.
– And for today’s Totally Untrue Fun Fact: In 1973, after announcing that they had swapped wives and families, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich approached ABC to develop a television show about their experiences, thinking that they could capitalize on the recent creation of reality television by the groundbreaking PBS series An American Family. ABC executives yelled at Peterson and Kekich, saying that “that sort of thing could never be shown on television.” On September 26, 2004, ABC premiered their new show Wife Swap. (N.B.: only two facts in this Totally Untrue Fun Fact are actually untrue).