New York Yankees: Yanks vs Red Sox series preview, matchups, and predictions

Game Four Matchup and Prediction

Game Four

Yankees @ Red Sox

8/5 8:00pm

Masahiro Tanaka vs. David Price

Fenway Park

Masahiro Tanaka

Tanaka has been decently consistent this season and you know what you’re getting out of him each time he steps onto the mound.

It seems every time he starts he goes about six innings or so.

On the season, Tanaka has a 3.84 ERA and a 9-2 record.

This season, Tanaka has gone up against Boston twice and he has been somewhat weak in both games. Luckily for the Yankees, they have managed to win both those games over the Red Sox. But, he simply has not been great.

In the two games combined, he has gone 10.1 innings, 5.1 in one game, 5.0 in the other. This compiled  a total of 15 hits, 10 runs and six strikeouts.

If Tanaka pitches anything like this on Sunday night, they won’t be as lucky as they have been the last two times Tanaka took the mound against Boston.

David Price

David Price has not been his normal self this season. Against the Yankees, he has simply been horrible. On the year, Price has a 3.97 ERA and an 11-6 record. Not bad but for Price’s standards these numbers truly are not great.

In his two appearances against the Yankees this season, Price has had two of the worst appearances of his season.

In his first appearance, he went only one full inning letting up four earned runs on three hits and two walks, a game which the Yankees went on to win 10-7.

So, if this is the Price that shows up (which fingers crossed it is) the Yankees should be able to jump all over him.

In his second appearance, he wasn’t much better going only 3.1 innings letting up nine hits and eight earned runs.

No one is sure what it is but Price simply does not show up when he takes the bump against the Bronx Bombers. But, hey, no one is complaining on this side.

Prediction: NYY 5 BOS 4

To continue the trend, Price will fail to have a strong outing against the Yankees but will be somewhat better than in his last two.

On Sunday night, Price will go four to five innings before turning the ball over to the bullpen. In those four to five innings Price will let up four runs and the bullpen will let up the remaining Yankees run.

For the Yankees, Tanaka will go about seven innings and will be strong for the most part. But, my prediction is that his last inning will be catastrophic and he will nearly blow the game for the Yanks. However, this will still be good enough.

Over the course of the four games, the Yankees will manage to grab three of them ultimately shrinking the Red Sox series lead to only 2.5 games.

This will put the Red Sox into sights for the Yankees and it will be possible to catch them in the division race before the end of the season.