The Red Sox handed New York their 8th loss in 9 games taking the series finale and leaving the struggling Yankees in last place to end April for the first time since 1985. Making his second start of the season, Chien-Ming Wang, took his second consecutive loss after turning in an uncharacteristic performance. The groundball induced outs typical to Wang’s outings were overshadowed by the longball as David Ortiz and Alex Cora hit homeruns that would prove to be too much for the Yankees offense to overcome.

Boston has won five of the six meetings between the rivals and with twelve to play they are half way to winning the season series. With the Yankees current struggles and both teams sitting at opposite ends of the standings, this season’s rivalry has taken on everything but the competitive mystique we have grown to love. Out of the six games played, Boston has come from behind in 3 of their five wins as they have outscored the Yankees 40-28 with 14 of those runs coming against the Yankees bullpen. Although the Yankees offense has scored the second most runs in the Majors (131) behind the Florida Marlins (133), it has become obvious that the cause of their early season woes can be pointed to pitching and defense. Yankees starters have pitched a total of 109 innings out of a total 209 innings played this season. That translates into 100 innings of work for the bullpen, by far the largest amount of relief appearances in the Majors this season. Conversely, the Red Sox starting staff has pitched a total of 149 innings out of 216 innings played with their offense contributing the fourth highest total runs scored (125) in the MLB.

Although there are plenty of games to play in which a Yankees turnaround is inevitable, many wonder what this poor early season performance may translate into under the microscope of New York’s high expectations. We have heard little from the dormant time bomb that is George Steinbrenner, but we can bet that his finger is tightly grasping the panic button with the Yankees current situation. Whether any action is taken, you can bet the team will be looking to officially begin their season on Tuesday with a fresh start to the new month in Texas.

(6 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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