Rumble In The Bronx AKA The Rebel Alliance Vs. The Evil Empire

We baseball fans have been waiting for it to come down to this matchup all season long. The Red Sox top three pitchers against the Yankees top three pitchers. The bats of the Red Sox lineup against the bats of the Yankee lineup. The Red Sox bullpen vs. the Yankee bullpen. It all comes down to this three game series in the House That Ruth Built located in the Bronx, New York. Does it get any better than this during baseball season? I'm not sure it does. The postseason is another beast entirely but all us of Red Sox and Yankees fans know the truth. To us, Red Sox vs. Yankees IS the postseason regardless of when the games are played during the season.


The Red Sox are magma hot after coming off of a four game sweep of the lowly Chicago White Sox while the Yankees are under .500 after having a tough road trip going head to head with the Los Angeles-Anaheim Angels and the Detroit Tigers (I told you so). The current standings have the Red Sox at 80-51 with a 7.5 game lead in the AL East while the Yankees are currently 72-58 and have a final game to play against the Tigers that can change that lead to an even 7 (with a win) or 8 game lead (with a loss) before the pivotal three game series starts on Tuesday. 

Edit: The Yankees lost 16-0 last night so the lead stands at 8 games in the AL East due to a 2-5 seven game road trip while the Sox won 6 of the last 7 (the last four by outscoring their opponents 46-7).

Even though the Red Sox have pretty much been leading the AL East from wire to wire, the season series is pretty close at 7 games to 5 in favor of the Red Sox. The Red Sox took 5 out of 6 games from the Yankees in early series' but have since only managed one game in each of the following two. If the Red Sox can manage to take 2 games or sweep this series it will pretty much mathematically bury the Yankees' chances at taking the division and leave them with trying the fight it out with the Detroit Tigers, Cleveland Indians and Seattle Mariners for the AL Wild Card.

There are only 31 games left in this regular season and we are at the stretch run. This is where teams fight for their individual playoff lives. Have the Yankees expended too much energy trying to get back into the playoff picture or do they have enough left in the tank to push them into the playoffs? Will the Red Sox continue their hot streak? Will they show the Yankees why they are one of the best road teams in Major League Baseball or will their bats go cold on them? All of these questions will be answered in Yankee Stadium from August 28th-30th.

As a side note to Red Sox fans, the magic number (as of 3:00 PM EST 8.28.07):

24

Any combination of Red Sox wins and/or Yankee losses result in one being subtracted from the magic number's total. After the number reaches 1, the next Red Sox win or Yankee loss the AL East division championship will be clinched and the Red Sox will be assured of a place in the postseason.

One.