The Yankees need to beat up on the Nationals, as Girardi has already planted the seeds of doubt about the nine game NL road trip, complaining about how “unfair” it is for an A.L team to go without the DH that long. Is there any indication that Matsui will play the field? Girardi has been rotating that DH spot around, I think its extra challenging to not have it when its been used to get different players a rest or a partial rest in certain games.

Regardless though I think its interesting to look a little beyond June 30 and think about where they will be at the ASB. The schedule certainly favors the Red Sox up to that point. The interleague schedules are similar but three games at Citi Field won’t feature quite as much offense – while the Sox get the Braves for an extra three. After that the Yankees go seven with Seattle and Toronto at home, and Seattle has played better than expected with one of the best pitching staffs in the league. Than six at Minnesota and LA, and Minnesota is playing better than they were when they got swept, and even if the Angels aren’t as good as usual, they are usually pretty tough against New York.

OTOH, after interleague is over, the Sox have three at the O’s then finish with ten at home – Seattle, Oakland and KC. Between their usual home field performance and the level of competition, I’ll be surprised if the Sox don’t play very well through that stretch.

I think the Sox have a chance to grab a hold of the division between now and the break, say a 4-5 game bulge in the division by then, though the Yankees will probably have close to the same lead on the wild card.

They should go 9-4 for the rest of the month. Anything less will be slightly disappointing. Anything more will obviously be stupendous.

7-5. Either 2-1 vs. the Nats, and 5-4 on the trip, or 3-0 vs. the Nats, and 4-5 on the trip.

They return home to face the Mariners at 43-32, not quite half the season played, and still leading the Wild Card by 1-3 games.

i dont care what u think they might have been sweot by the red sox but they took 2 out of 3 from the mets no matter how they won that first game…. yea castillo made rare error but thats why u play the games on the field u never know whats going to happen… a win is win and that was a big win no matter how they won.. they kicked the crao out out the mets “ace”, who i think is the most overrated pitcher in baseball cause hes pitches in the national league, if he was still in the american league he would not be considered one of the best pitchers in baseball… anyone with decent stuff can face lineups with 3 or 4 good hitteres. it takes a real pitcher to face a lineup with 7 to 9 good hitters… this eries was good for yankees no matter what you say