MLB Game Preview - NY Yankees at Boston

Fri Jul 26, 2019 7:10 PM EDT

Through the first seven meetings this season, the Red-Sox Yankees rivalry has gone in New York's favor nearly every time.

In one night in Boston, the Red Sox flipped the script.

Now, the Yankees will look to rebound from a historic defeat when they return to the field Friday for the second contest of a four-game series at Fenway Park.

Boston, loser of six of the teams' first seven matchups this year, battered New York 19-3 in the series opener Thursday. The run total was its most ever in the rivalry and its fourth straight game scoring at least eight runs against the Yankees, the Red Sox's longest such streak since 1912.

Further, Boston reached season highs in runs, hits (23), doubles (10) and extra-base hits (14) and tied an American League record with eight different players recording two or more RBIs.

"We've been rolling for a while now offensively," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "We feel that we can go toe to toe with whoever, (any) other offenses. We're leading the big leagues in runs scored, and for two months we were talking about how inconsistent we were, but we feel good about it."

A night after Masahiro Tanaka gave up 12 earned runs, the most ever by a Yankees pitcher against the Red Sox, left-hander James Paxton (5-5, 4.20 ERA) will take the mound Friday opposite Boston righty Andrew Cashner (9-5, 4.19).

Cashner would surely appreciate the same kind of run support after losing his first two starts with the Red Sox since being acquired from Baltimore earlier this month. Against the Orioles on Sunday in his last time out, he gave up four runs on six hits over six innings to raise his ERA with Boston to 7.36.

Against the Yankees this season, Cashner is 0-2 with a 6.19 ERA in three starts, all coming with the Orioles. Lifetime, he's 2-5 with a 3.96 ERA in 10 outings against New York.

Paxton, meanwhile, will look to avoid forcing the Yankees to send a position player to the mound for the second game in a row after catcher Austin Romine pitched the eighth in Thursday's blowout loss. Paxton struck out 12 in eight scoreless innings against the Red Sox earlier this season and is 3-0 with a 1.89 ERA against the club for his career (five starts).

However, the southpaw has struggled of late, particularly plagued by walks. He's given up 20 in his last 44 innings, with a 5.52 ERA in that span.

In his last start, Paxton was tagged for seven runs (four earned) on five hits and three walks with six strikeouts in 3 1/3 innings against the Colorado Rockies in a loss.

"I lost my rhythm a little bit," he told reporters. "I didn't locate very well and was falling behind."

Paxton's struggles, on top of a scuffling CC Sabathia and Tanaka now also proving ineffective, has helped to underscore the Yankees' perceived need to beef up their pitching ahead of next week's trade deadline.

"We're obviously doing a lot of good things right now, but we're certainly not perfect either," manager Aaron Boone said. "We just continue to pour into how we can get better. We have a lot of guys in that room that are obsessed with that. That's a really good thing."

In recent meetings of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, there's been no margin for error on the mound. The teams have combined to score 85 runs in their last four matchups, including 50 in a two-game span in London last month.

--Field Level Media