First pitch: Sunday, 8:10 p.m. ET
Line: Boston -104, New York -106, Total: 8.5

Long-time rivals, the Red Sox and Yankees, finish up their three-game series in the Bronx on Sunday night with a rubber match.

Boston has struggled to find any consistency this year as they attempt to defend its World Series title, and comes into Friday's game losing five of its past seven games. All these Red Sox losses came on the road while they were able to salvage just one win out of three against the Mariners to start the week, prevailing on Wednesday by a score of 5-4. Overall in the series they were dominated, being outscored 24-10 at Safeco Field while they were able to squeak out a win in the finale as DH David Ortiz (.256 BA) drove their offense with a home run and 3 RBI. Newly re-acquired SS Stephen Drew (.122 BA), has not done much since returning to the team and has gone hitless (0-for-25) with five strikeouts in his past seven games coming into this series. New York currently sits in third place in the AL East, three games back of Toronto, and has been victorious just once in its past five tries through Thursday. Just like Boston, they also avoided a sweep of the Blue Jays on Wednesday, winning 5-3. Red Sox-turned-Yankees OF Jacoby Ellsbury (.286 BA) was 3-for-4 in the win and has gone 11-for-31 (.355) with 3 RBI, six runs and three stolen bases over the past eight games. The pitching matchup for this contest will peg experience versus youth, as 35-year-old RHP John Lackey (8-5, 3.45 ERA) toes the rubber for Boston, while 25-year-old RHP Chase Whitley (3-1, 4.07 ERA) throws for New York. Coming into this series, the Red Sox have not done well on the road, going just 16-24 in away games, while the Yankees have not thrived at home with a subpar 17-18 record. This storied rivalry has been a tight one over the past three seasons with Boston holding a slight 24-20 edge overall while going 11-12 at Yankee Stadium before the start of this series. This year, the two clubs have already faced each other seven times, with New York going 5-2.

John Lackey has done a great job reviving his career over the past few seasons and has once again been a very reliable pitcher for the Red Sox in 2014. He has completely harnessed his control and is walking just 1.8 batters per nine innings; a career-best mark. Meanwhile, he has continued to strike out a solid number of batters (7.8 K/9) while limiting his damage via the home run (0.76 HR/9). Unfortunately, Lackey is coming off one of his worst outings of the season, as he lasted only 3.2 frames in a loss to the Mariners, serving up seven runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out three. This has not been the norm though, as the right-hander had pitched six straight quality starts before that game, going at least eight innings in three of those contests. Lackey has not done too well against the Yankees over 29 career starts, going 11-11 with a 4.82 ERA and 1.47 WHIP, and has already split his two games against them while allowing four home runs and seven runs in 13.2 innings of work this season. Speedy OF Brett Gardner (12-for-37, 4 XBH, 4 RBI, 6 K’s), 1B Mark Teixeira (33-for-113, 2 HR, 13 RBI, 10 walks, 15 K’s) and C Brian McCann (3-for-7, 2 HR, 3 RBI) have all hit really well against the veteran. On the other hand, OF Alfonso Soriano (8-for-43, 11 K’s) and OF Jacoby Ellsbury (4-for-17, 5 K’s) have not had success in the matchup. Coming into this series, the Red Sox bullpen has been great with a 2.96 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, but also has a weak 11-15 record, and is 19-for-26 (73%) in save opportunities. Closer Koji Uehara (1.26 ERA, 16 saves) has blown just one save this year while putting up a tremendous 45:5 K/BB ratio over 35.2 innings of work.

Chase Whitley has provided the Yankees with some surprising depth in the rotation after spending most of his past years in the system as a reliever. After putting up a 2.39 ERA and 10.9 K/9 over seven games (6 starts) at Triple-A to begin this year, New York called him up and he has since given them 6-of-8 starts where he has allowed two or fewer runs. His strikeout rate has dropped to just 6.0 K/9 so far at the big league level, but he has walked just seven batters in his 42 frames this year while giving up only two home runs (0.43 HR/9). This will be Whitley’s first encounter with the Red Sox in his young career and he will need to be careful when facing 3B Brock Holt who leads the team with a .323 batting average and DH David Ortiz, who has provided the most power (18 HR) and production (49 RBI) on the club. Meanwhile, 24-year-old OF Jackie Bradley Jr. is hitting a paltry .211 coming into this series while striking out in 29% of his at-bats. New York’s relievers have combined to go 10-13 with a 3.99 ERA and 1.31 WHIP while converting 25-of-36 (69%) save coming into this series. David Robertson (3.08 ERA, 18 saves) has blown two saves this season while already having 47 strikeouts in just 26.1 innings on the mound (16.1 K/9).