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Red Sox host Yankees on Wednesday
By: Zach Cohen - StatFox
Published: 8/10/2016  at  11:37:00 AM
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NEW YORK YANKEES (56-56)

at BOSTON RED SOX (61-50)

First pitch: Wednesday, 7:10 p.m. ET
Line: New York +165, Boston -175, Total: 9.5

The Red Sox will be looking to take another game from the Yankees in Boston on Wednesday.

New York still has a slim shot at making the postseason, but the team is more concerned with getting some of its talented players reps heading into next season. That does, however, exclude this series against the Red Sox. The Yankees have every intention of winning this series, but that’s going to be tough now that they lost the opening game. Boston, meanwhile, needs to win this series, as the team has struggled lately and doesn’t want to fall behind in the AL East race. This is a golden opportunity to pick up a few games against a lousy Yankees team and a win on Wednesday would be huge for the Sox. On the mound in this game will be RHP Nathan Eovaldi (9-8, 4.80 ERA, 97 K) for New York and LHP Drew Pomeranz (8-9, 3.09 ERA, 136 K) for Boston. Both guys have had their issues recently, but the Red Sox are hoping that Pomeranz can snap out of it and perform like the player they thought they were getting in their deal with San Diego. One bad sign for the Yankees is that they are just 2-10 against the money line with Eovaldi pitching after allowing two or more home runs in his most recent outing over the past two seasons.

Nathan Eovaldi had a poor stretch earlier in the year, but he has been a bit better for the Yankees recently. Over his past four starts, Eovaldi has allowed just 10 earned runs in 25 innings of work. Eovaldi’s main issue is that he throws extremely hard, but will occasionally give his batters a fastball right over the middle. He’ll need to make sure he keeps his pitches down, as he has allowed two homers in each of the past two games and needs to make sure that doesn’t happen again on Wednesday. Offensively, the Yankees can expect a good performance from OF Jacoby Ellsbury (.272, 4 HR, 35 RBI) in this one. Ellsbury has hit Pomeranz well in his career, going 3-for-5 with two doubles against the lefty. New York will also be hoping that DH Gary Sanchez (.217, 0 HR, 3 RBI) can come through for them on Wednesday. Sanchez is one of the Yankees’ prized prospects and has been solid for the team since being promoted on Aug. 3. He should be in the lineup against a lefty pitcher and he’ll be counted on to produce.

Drew Pomeranz has had an up-and-down stint with the Red Sox so far, but he is coming off of a good outing for the team. Pomeranz pitched six innings against the Mariners on Aug. 4 and allowed just two earned runs. He struck out six batters in that game, but he did walk six as well. That is an unfathomable number and Pomeranz must start pitching with better control moving forward. The run support for the lefty could come from guys like 2B Dustin Pedroia (.297, 12 HR, 49 RBI) and 1B Hanley Ramirez (.271, 14 HR, 62 RBI). Both guys have had a ton of success against Eovaldi in their careers, as Pedroia is 5-for-13 with a homer and an RBI against him and Ramirez is an even better 8-for-19 with a homer and six RBI. If the two of them can continue to hit the Yankees’ flamethrower that well then it’s likely the Red Sox will emerge victorious on Wednesday.


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