Great job guys... now do it against the Yankees

Written by Rob Munstis | 07 May 2010

The Red Sox just completed a sweep of the struggling Los Angeles Angels, but remain in 4th place in the AL East and 6.5 games out of first.

The Sox scored 36 runs in the 4-game series, posting 17 runs in Game 1 and 11 runs last night. The Angels starting rotation isn't that bad, but the Sox caught this team in a serious funk and took advantage.

Now they have a chance to do some damage in the East with a 3-game set against the Yankees this weekend.

But don't expect the Sox to ride this wave right over the Yankees. Things have lined up perfectly for the Sox with Beckett, Lester and Buchholz as the starters, but the Yankees will be countering with Phil Hughes (3-0, 1.44), bypassing the struggling Javier Vasquez, C.C. Sabathia (4-1, 2.74) on Saturday and A.J. Burnett (4-0, 1.99) in the series finale.

That said... the starters are pitching well, the bullpen will be rested and the offense has been much better than expected. In fact, the Red Sox and Yankees are pretty evenly matched - on paper:

Runs - Red Sox: 150 (6th), Yankees: 151 (5th)

Average - Red Sox: .275 (6th), Yankees: .275 (5th)

Slugging % - Red Sox: .467 (2nd),  Yankees: .458 (3rd)

OPS - Red Sox: .818 (3rd), Yankees: .822 (1st)

The Yankees have also won 4 in a row and should get the ailing Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera back on the field for this series, so this weekend should be a battle.

Bottom Line: The Red Sox beat up on the bad teams and struggled against the good ones in 2009. 2010 has looked very similar with a 10-6 record against the Angles, Royals, Rangers and Orioles and a 2-8 record against the Rays, Yankees and Twins.

The difference is good pitching. The Rays have a 2.84 ERA (3rd in MLB, 1st in AL), the Yankees are 5th at 3.45 and the Twins are 8th at 3.60. Meanwhile the Angles are now 28th in the league at 5.30, the Royals are 27th at 5.21, the Orioles are 20th at 4.49 and the Rangers are 11th at 3.89.

You could argue that the Rangers are not a bad team, by siting their current tie for 1st place in the AL West, but keep in mind they have 15 wins... the same number as the 4th place Red Sox.

Also keep in mind that the Sox needed late game heorics to win two games versus Texas and that the Sox were recently swept by the Orioles. Not only have they struggled to beat the good teams, but they've needed a little magic just to beat the bad ones.

A series win this weekend would prove that this team has a chance at getting back into the playoff hunt.