Wake up the Bambino. He’s getting drilled.
It took until June but we are finally getting Red Sox vs Yankees. Twice! This weekend the clubs battle in the Bronx and next weekend at Fenway Park. It’s definitely been a tale of two seasons for the division rivals. The Yankees are cruising with a five-game division lead (nine up on Boston) while the Red Sox are drifting towards the last place Baltimore Orioles. Is there momentum in baseball? No. And definitely not between series in different cites against different teams.
But that doesn’t mean this is a series that the Sox are destined to lose either. Looking at the way the Angels games played out, Boston would have swept or won two games if they had been just a tiny bit better. That obviously didn’t happen and the Angels aren’t really a good team so a sweep or multi-game winning streak might not have told us anything anyway.
Friday night the Sox send Walker Buehler against Will Warren. While he was roughed up for 5 runs in 5.2 innings agains the Atlanta Braves last time out Buehler’s previous starts were solid. And the strikeouts were there against the Atlanta Lineup. Will Warren was pounded for 7 runs in just 1.1 innings by the Los Angeles Dodgers last time out. Before that he handled the Colorado Rockies, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners, and Philadelphia, Kansas City, Oakland, Las Vegas Athletics. That’s fine enough but none of those non-Dodgers teams have much in terms of offense. Again, not a guarantee of anything, but the Red Sox bats could keep this a game is Buehler does.
Crochet Day is Saturday night. Ryan Yarbrough? Seriously? He’s had an eight-year career of being OK. Now he’s suddenly a starter and not a reliever and only gives up one run a game? Probably guaranteed a shutout now but we’ll see if this success is real (his last month+ has also been against lesser offenses than Boston). If it is then Andrew Bailey really needs To go back to the drawing board on getting more out of pitchers.
Those two have a good chance for the Red Sox to capitalize. Sunday is Carlos Rodón, who has (sadly) returned to form since his nearly seven ERA 2023 season. In three games last year the Red Sox hit .265/.324/.500 against the southpaw. The lineup is different in 2025 but lefties were a problem last year and they seemed to figure it out against him.
Because Max Fried pitched Thursday he won’t be available for this series. It also means their ace won’t be pitching in Fenway next weekend. He’d probably start Wednesday or Thursday with their off day.
So that’s the situation.
Walker Buehler and the bats need to show up.
You count on Crochet to be the ace and have the bats show up.
See what happens Sunday night.
A sweep (lol) puts the Sox 6 back of New York. It’s too early to give up but also time to show up or it’s going to be a long summer.
Probable Pitching Matchups
Friday June 6: Walker Buehler (4.44 ERA / 4.72 FIP) vs. Will Warren (5.19 ERA / 3.11 FIP)
Saturday June 7: Garrett Crocher (1.98 ERA / 2.67 FIP) vs. Ryan Yarbrough (2.83 ERA / 4.21 FIP)
Sunday June 8: Hunter Dobbins (4.06 ERA / 3.75 FIP) vs. Carlos Rodón (2.49 ERA / 2.94 FIP)
When/Where to Watch
Friday June 6: 7:05 PM ET on NESN, MLBN
Saturday June 7: 7:35 PM ET on FOX
Sunday June 8: 7:10 PM ET on ESPN