Yankees and Red Sox, Again

The one hundred year old rivalry, perhaps the most famed and exciting of all in north American sports, if not the entire world, meets about 19 times a year, in the regular season, without calculating into this total likely post-season face-offs. This is, of course, the New York Yankees Boston Red Sox matchup. For fans, sports aficionados and us gamblers, this means a couple dozen opportunities to watch closely, and bet on the outcome of, baseball action of the highest level.

This past weekend, we had another series in this ages-long sports clash. Still early in the season, the Yankees came to Boston for a weekend series, carried on the mighty bat of Alex Rodriguez, who has come off an amazing start so far, now with the media focused on his unsuccessful journey with the Yankees, having yielded no championship as of yet. He would now get a chance to face the fiercest bullpen, the result of a summer of brilliant moves by Red Sox management, which has brought them Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Japanese pitching phenomenon.

Entering the series, both the Yankees and the Red sox were listed as +300 favorites to win the American League Pennant. Since this did not help gamblers decide either way over the outcome of the series, they could look at past stats. In 2006, the Red Sox were 8-11 playing New York and only 2-7 at Fenway. Certainly a reason to go with the Yankees. Then there was starting pitcher Curt Schilling who is off to a good start, 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA. But facing him was league home run leader A-Rod. The X-factor, the unknown, was how Dice-K would fare, under the pressure and facing the Yankees terrific batting order. With the factors pointing either way and the X-Factor, well, unknown, it is hard to imagine anyone betting on the outcome, a Red Sox sweep. It probably does not make matters any simpler for the next series, to resume Friday, April 27, at Yankee Stadium.