Boston travels to New York for weekend series

A series between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox is supposed to highlight one of baseball’s greatest rivalries. This weekend’s series offers little more than two teams trying to figure things out.    New York (40-37) has been treading water of late, winning on Wednesday at Toronto.

Yankees manager Joe Girardi said, “Within the division, the games that we’ve played, we’ve played six against Toronto and three against Baltimore and now we’re going to play Boston and Tampa. I thought we needed to play a good game before the off day.”

Maybe he feels that way because the Yankees are starting Vidal Nuno (1-4, 5.88), who is not only 0-3 at home covering seven starts but also has a horrific 7.09 ERA.

Girardi added, “This is what we have. And as I said, it’s not like there’s just starting pitchers lying around out there. Right now, this is what it is.”

As far as Boston (36-43), which is 2-5 on a 10-game road trip, Brandon Workman (1-0, 2.88 ERA) – coming off a suspension – gets the nod. The good news for Sox fans is while it’s not in a starting capacity, the right-handed pitcher has had success against the Yankees, holding them to a .167 batting average in 3 1/3 innings of relief work last year.

Considering the two pitchers recent histories, and despite the Red Sox lack of hitting this season, the game could be close. This means the money line and run line is tricky affairs, but the over at 9 looks promising. It is the American League after all.