Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees May 13 Line at EVEN
The line on the May 13, 2011 Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees game was EVEN or New York -110 and Boston +100 with the UNDER set at -115 at Sportsbook.com
The last time that the Yankees and Red Sox met, the Bronx Bombers were 4-2, the Red Sox were 0-6, Boston free-agent acquisition Carl Crawford (who’s making a ton of money) was batting .143, and BoSox fans were having sharp objects confiscated from them. The Sox took two of three from their visitors that weekend, got over a bumpy storm or two since, and now about five weeks later, can see the Yankees in the standings from their front porch. That is the good news. The bad news is they have two teams to catch in the standings since New York this week has fallen out of first place for the first time since April 13. Tampa Bay, who began the season 1-8 has surged to take over the top spot in the division. Boston, New York and Tampa Bay in a fight for first, summer must be near in the AL East.
Friday in New York the rivals will square off again in a three-game series that has both teams bringing more than a little bit of desperation to the table. Boston (17-20) just dropped two in a row to Toronto, while the Yankees (20-15) just dropped two in a row to the Royals in a series in which Kansas City scored 15 runs in the last two games.
New York has lost six of its past nine games and will send the crafty Bartolo Colon to the hill. Colon (2-1, 3.86 ERA) has been a mini blessing this year for the Bombers, as he has provided a surprisingly reliable veteran arm in the absence of the ailing Phil Hughes. His strikeout-to-walk ratio is 5.3 (37 K, 7 BB), and Colon is hoping that his recent success will overshadow his career efforts versus Boston. In 26 lifetime starts against the Sox, his team is 11-15, while Colon is 8-10 with a 4.38 ERA and 1.53 WHIP. To be fair, the last time Colon started against Boston, gas prices were right around $2 per gallon, the year was 2005, and while the Charleston was not the dance of the day, 2005 was a long time ago. For some more recent history, Colon is hoping that the Sox of yesteryear do not get to him the way the 2011 Texas Rangers banged him around in his last start Saturday, when he allowed five runs and nine hits in 4.1 innings.
The Yankees offense has been up and down during this nine-game stretch. While Mark Teixeira (2 runs in past 7 games) and Alex Rodriguez (.279 slugging pct. in May) have struggled of late, Curtis Granderson is leading the team (and the league) in home runs and is tops on the team in RBI with 12 and 25 respectively, while Robinson Cano is tops with a .291 BA. A-Rod homered on Thursday for the first time in 65 at-bats, but is hitting .188 with four RBI in his last 12 games. He has a 16-game hitting streak against the BoSox in which he is batting .373 with seven homers. If he is to get well, this is the team and the time to do so.
Rodriguez and his teammates could be looking forward to seeing Clay Buchholz on the hill for the Red Sox. They Yankees are 5-1 when facing Buchholz, who is 1-3 with a 6.25 ERA and 1.93 WHIP in these six starts. Buchholz got rocked for eight hits and five runs (four earned) in just 3.2 innings in his last start against New York on April 9. Recently he has won two straight starts, including his last outing Saturday against the Twins where he pitched five innings of shutout ball, allowing just two hits and fanning six before rain ultimately limited his outing. Boston is hoping that Dustin Pedroia’s bat awakens the way it did in the last series versus New York, when he posted three straight three-hit games with a homer and five RBI against the Yankees. Crawford went 1-for-15 in that series, but is now batting .356 during an 11-game hitting streak. He's hit .338 with 11 RBI in 17 games at the new Yankee Stadium.
- Carrie Stroup, Gambling911.com Senior Reporter
