Bring On The Sox

"Bring on the Red Sox." No, that's not the chant of some arrogant Yankees fan who thinks this year's ballclub can go head-to-head with Murders Row and come out victorious. It's what Joe Girardi's boys better be thinking as we head towards a very significant four game set between the Bombers and BoSox.

The greatest rivalry in sports was last showcased on June 11th. The Red Sox completed yet another sweep of the Yanks and were riding high. They were 8 and 0 against the team that had the best chance of knocking them off their perch in the AL East standings. But things have changed a lot since then.

Over the past six weeks -- since June 24th against the Braves -- the Yanks have been playing as good a brand of baseball as they have played in years. Going into that game against Atlanta, the Yanks were five games back of Boston with a record of 38 up and 32 down.

Since that game the club has gone 27 and 10, a five game deficit has turned into a two and-a-half game lead. Boston has played just above .500 -- 19 wins to 17 loses in that time.

The Yankees have won ten series and lost only two in that time, and one of those losses came against the Angels whom it seems the Yanks can't beat so long as their manager's name is Joe.

The Red Sox 19 and 17 record is actually better than it should be. Consider that they played the AL East Punching-Bag-Orioles nine times in that span, winning seven of those match-ups.

Beantown has also suffered some terrible losses since to two clubs last played. There was that embarrassing loss when the Sox led the O's 10-1 only to implode and lose 11-10. Just over a week ago Jonathan Papelbon came into a game against Oakland with a three run lead only to have Nick Green commit two throwing errors with two outs to let the lead slip away, Oakland went on to win in extras.

Early in the season Red Sox Nation had Jason Bay as the shoo-in for MVP, not to mention next mayor of Boston. Well, Bay's stats have started to resemble G.M.'s stock charts from earlier this year, his batting average is down over .70 points in the last two months. Throw in a home run total for July that would make even David Wright cringe -- ONE, that's right just one homer for the month.

J.D. Drew batted to a .217 clip in July. John Smoltz has looked nothing like the pitcher we knew in Atlanta -- and that has nothing to do with his receding hairline. Smoltz is two and four with a seven-plus ERA. Add to all this, the steroid news concerning Manny and Ortiz.

No, it has not been perfect in the Bronx. Alfredo Aceves has been shaky over his last few outings, same for Phil Coke. Losing Chien-Ming Wang for the season is going to hurt, but all that is small potatoes compared to the problems in Beantown.

Boston has lost their last two. The Yankees have won three in-a-row. The Yankees have their pitching staff setup, the top four starters will pitch. Smoltz is the only one Boston would rather not have start in this series.

Taking three out of four in a series against anyone is tough. Pulling it off against a formidable foe like the Red Sox is asking a lot. To prove that things have turned around in the past month and a half the Yankees need to split the series -- minimum.

Anything short of two wins will mean a tie in the loss column atop the AL East standing. A sweep either way would obviously be a huge blow to the loser. The Yanks would have a 6.5 game lead and dispelled of all the demons should they win four.

If the Sox continue their dominance in the match-up they will not only leap-frog into first, they show that while the Yanks can walk over the rest of baseball they still can't beat the playoff contenders.

This series comes at the right time for the Yankees, now they have to take care of business on the field. If they don't, the Red Sox will have successfully called the bluff of the past six weeks.