The New York Yankees head off to Boston to take on their heated rivals and hope to keep them winless through the weekend at Fenway Park

New York Yankees at Boston Red Sox

New York is coming off a solid 4-3 home win on Thursday night over the Minnesota Twins by receiving three perfect innings by its bullpen in the final frames.  The Yankees have used the recipe of pitching Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera starting in the seventh inning in three of their four victories.  The team will be playing its first road game of the season today due to playing 12 of its first 15 games at Yankee Stadium.  Today’s game will mark the sixth time in the last four seasons that the Yankees have played in their opposition’s home opener, posting a 1-4 mark in those games.  New York is 84-61 against division opponents the last two-plus seasons.

Yankees starting pitcher Phil Hughes will be making his second start of the season and 14th career appearance (seventh start) against the Red Sox.  The right hander has made 12 starts during the month of April in his career, going 3-6 with a 5.80 ERA.  Hughes has tallied a 9-3 record and 3.63 ERA in day games over the last three years since the 2009 campaign.  New York has been accustomed to scoring runs when he’s on the mound, receiving 7.49 runs per nine innings last season, which was the highest such mark among qualifying pitchers in baseball.  He has a 2-3 record and 4.97 ERA in six career starts against Boston, including a 2-1 mark and 6.00 ERA in two outings at Fenway Park.

Boston is starting to hear such statistics like only two teams in history have started 0-6 and went on to reach the playoffs after Wednesday’s 1-0 loss on the road to Cleveland.  “The record is what it is, but I don’t want us to have a hangover,” said manager Terry Francona.  “We need to pick it up.  We’re going to play a good team now.”  The Red Sox have started 0-6 three times in club history and has lost seven or more contests to begin a season only once, when starting 0-8 in 1945.  The team’s vaunted lineup is managing to hit just .181 collectively and the pitching staff has posted a 7.13 ERA thus far during the 2011 campaign.  Boston is 102-62 at home the past two-plus seasons.

Red Sox starting pitcher John Lackey took the loss in his first start of the season at Texas, giving up nine runs and 10 hits.  The right-hander also allowed a career-high seven extra base hits in just 3 2/3 innings.  It was a surprising result when considering he tied for the team lead with two wins during spring and went 2-1 with a 3.43 ERA over five Grapefruit League starts.  Lackey faced the Yankees three times last year, going 1-1 with a 3.20 ERA.

Bettors are likely going to back the Red Sox due to being 12-4 in Lackey’s last 16 home starts, while the Yankees are 0-4 on the road with Hughes on the hill.