First pitch: Tuesday, 7:05 p.m. ET
Line: New York -200, Boston +185, Total: 8.5

The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees renew their once prestigious rivalry when they begin a three-game set in the Bronx on Tuesday night.

Despite a wealth of big moves in the offseason, the Red Sox have not been able to get things done and are currently the bottom dwellers of the AL East while sitting 13 games behind New York. After the All-Star break, Boston failed to get a win on a seven-game road trip, and since that time has gone an even 5-5 with all of those games being played at Fenway. The Sox did win their last series when Tampa Bay came to town, but failed to get a sweep on Sunday when they took a 4-3 loss as the bullpen blew a lead late in the contest. SS Xander Bogaerts (.319) continued to hit the ball all over the place and in the last 10 games has gone 18-for-43 (.419) with 10 runs scored. The Yankees have surprised most with their impressive play this year as they lead the East by 5.5 games over both Baltimore and Toronto behind the second-best scoring offense in baseball. Things have not slowed down since the break and they are they are 11-5 since the mid-summer classic. They are coming home off of a 10-game road trip in which they were 6-4 and capped it off with a series win over the White Sox; taking the final game by a score of 12-3 as they went 6-for-11 with RISP. One of the biggest driving forces to their success on the year has been 1B Mark Teixeira (.266) who over the past four contests is 7-for-15 (.467) with five homers and nine RBIs. Making his MLB debut in this game will be top prospect LHP Henry Owens (0-0, 0.00 ERA) for the visiting Sox as RHP Masahiro Tanaka (7-4, 3.80 ERA) takes the ball for New York. The road has been unwelcome for this Boston group in 2015 as they are 20-31 (.392) away from the confines of Fenway and will be facing the Yanks who have posted a record of 30-17 (.638) when they play in front of their fans. This rivalry has lost some of its luster over the years, but the teams have still played tough and since the start of the 2013 season, New York holds a slight 24-23 edge in the series; going just 10-13 at home during that time though. This year, the Yankees have been able to take 6-of-9 games against the Red Sox and the last time they met, New York won 2-of-3 in Boston while outscoring them 16-12. Trends show that the Yankees are a mere 14-24 (.368) when playing on a Tuesday in the past two seasons as they’ve also managed to go 29-14 (.674) after having won two of their last three games this year. Some big bats could be missing from the lineup for the Red Sox as 3B Pablo Sandoval (Wrist) is questionable while 2B Dustin Pedroia (Hamstring) and OF Mookie Betts (Concussion) ride the DL. New York will be missing just OF Mason Williams (Shoulder) as OF Carlos Beltran (Foot) is listed as probable.

Owens is a tall (6’6”) lefty that came out of the 2011 amateur draft as the 36th player selected overall and he immediately made an impact in his professional career. At each of his first three stops in the minor leagues between 2012 and 2013, Owens was able to mow down 299 batters in 236.2 innings (11.39 K/9), but did struggle with control as he posted more than 4.1 BB/9 at each stop. In 2014 he was able to harness much of that control between visits to both double-A and triple-A and opened the 2015 season with the Pawtucket Red Sox as the team expected him to make the trip to the big league club at some point this year. The call has been made after posting a 3.16 ERA over 21 starts which was aided by batters hitting a meager .230 BABIP while he struck out a career-low 7.6 batters per nine and saw a lapse in control (4.1 BB/9). He will need to be careful when facing both the aforementioned Teixeira and also 3B Alex Rodriguez (.277) who since the break has put up six homers, 10 RBIs and 14 runs in 55 at-bats. One player that has not been playing well is former Red Sox OF Jacoby Ellsbury (.283) who is hitting .190 without a stolen base over his last 16 games played. Boston’s bullpen has gone 13-16 with a 3.88 ERA (1.33 WHIP) and is 25-for-38 (66%) in save chances. Koji Uehara (2.33 ERA, 23 saves) has blown two of his 25 save opportunities this season and over his last 10 appearances has allowed one run on five hits with a 16:2 K/BB ratio in 10.2 innings of work.

Since coming back from surgery, Tanaka has not exactly been the pitcher that the Yankees signed for $155 million a year ago. He still has been effective most of the time and does show flashes of his “Ace” potential, but has allowed too many balls to hover over the plate and as a result gets pounded every few outings. Tanaka is giving up far too many homers (1.54 HR/9) for a guy whose key pitch is a splitter, but he still has managed to keep the walks in check (1.9 BB/9) and strikeout a healthy number of the opposition (8.6 K/9). The righty has earned a quality start in four of his last five outings, but struggled in his last visit to the bump against the Rangers; giving up four runs on nine hits with three strikeouts (3 walks) in six innings. He hasn’t been all too successful when taking on the Red Sox in his career, going 2-2 with a 4.70 ERA (1.35 WHIP), but did get a victory after going five innings and allowing four runs (3 ER) on four hits against them earlier this year. Although he has struggled this year, 1B Mike Napoli could get on track against Tanaka as he has gone 3-for-6 with two solo homers against him in his career. On the other hand, both SS Xander Bogaerts and OF Jackie Bradley Jr. have had issues in the matchup and are a combined 3-for-16 (.188). The relievers for the Yanks have been solid, going 18-10 with a 3.39 ERA (1.16 WHIP) and have saved 33-of-41 (80%) games. Andrew Miller (1.75 ERA, 23 saves) has yet to blow a save on the year and owns an astounding 54:12 K/BB ratio with 14 hits allowed over 36 innings.