Showdown in the Bronx

For Yankee fans, these are the games that tend to matter the most....

Much has changed since the last time these two teams have met on June 11th..These days, the Yankees bullpen (thanks mostly to the emergence of Phil Hughes) has become much more stable, the A-Roid talks have been minimal and the bat of Mark Teixeira has come alive.

More importantly, the Yankees go into this crucial series up 2.5 games in the A.L East standings....The question is...can the finally take a game from the Red Sox this time around?

The Sawx will be without the big bat of Jason Bay, but make up for it with the newly acquired bat of Victor Martinez. The Yanks will be sending their four big hurlers to the mound for this four game set as well....and I don't mean Sergio Mitre

How's the series gonna shape up? Let's take a glance shall we?

In tonight's game, we have John Smoltz goin up against Joba Chamberlain...Joba has given up only 2 runs in his last three starts since the All-Star break whereas Smoltz has looked nothing short of dreadful so far this season...

With that being said, I feel like Smoltz is due for a solid outing and Chamberlain is due to have a 5 inning 100 pitch outing...Also, you know how the Yankees fair against pitchers they don't see very often...

After 1....Red Sox 1...Yankees 0

Game 2 gives us the best pitching matchup of the series with A.J Burnett going up against Sox ace Josh Beckett....Coming off a lousy start, A.J's had a solid year...but Beckett has been that much better going 13-4 with an e.r.a of 3.27....Burnett has been rocked in his two starts vs Boston this year...I don't see anything different happening here...Sox win 10 straight vs the Bombers

After 2....Red Sox 2...Yankees 0

Game 3 is a matinee pitting C.C against Clay Buchholz....It's past the all-star break now which means it's usually time for Sabathia to turn on the jets and pitch lights out for the rest of the year...The young buck gets taken to school on Saturday and gets introduced to the long ball..the Yanks hold on to their slim lead of first...and finally beat the Sox

After 3....Red Sox 2...Yankees 1

Game 4 I feel is going to be the game of the series as we have Andy Pettite, who got his first win in over a month the other night against the crafty Jon Lester and his 158 strikeouts...I predict a solid outing by both men, but a game that goes into extras. How does it end? A Victor Martinez home run!

During last night's post-game interviews, Teixeira blew off the importance of the upcoming series saying it was "just another game."

Save those types of comments for when you've actually beaten the Red Sox once this year or put them away in the division...

With all that being said, i'm calling that the Sox take 3 out of 4 and creep that much closer to first place in the AL East...

This is by far a much different and better Yanks team than the Sox saw last time around....but as far as for beating Boston...expect much of the same