Three-game series could help decide race for AL East crown

BOSTON (AP) – The Yankees are coming, and the surging Red Sox are ready.

New York visits Boston for the last time in the regular season starting Friday night with a chance to turn the AL East chase into a runaway or a race to the wire.

“We don’t get caught up in what the Yankees are doing,” Boston’s Kevin Millar said.

They can’t avoid that during the three-game series at Fenway Park that could leave the Red Sox 1 games out of first or 7 games behind by Labor Day on Monday.

“I’m never comfortable playing in that ballpark against that team,” Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

On Aug. 21, the Yankees had a 7-game lead over the second-place Red Sox. It was a familiar spot for Boston, which finished second to New York each of the last five seasons.

But that night, even with Pedro Martinez missing a start with a throat ailment, Boston beat Oakland 13-4. That began its current stretch of six wins in seven games that reduced New York’s lead to 4 games.

That includes a four-game sweep of Seattle in Boston which dropped the Mariners into the tight wild-card race with the Red Sox and Oakland A’s.

“Our ultimate goal is to win the division,” Boston’s Todd Walker said. “The bare minimum would be for us to just get into the playoffs and then anything can happen. The Angels showed us that last year.”

Anaheim won the World Series as a wild-card club.

The Yankees lost two games to the surging Chicago White Sox this week by a combined score of 24-4 before taking the final game of the series Thursday 7-5.

Now they head into Fenway, the House That Ruth Left.

“Every time we’ve gone in there in my tenure, the players seem vitalized, they seem pumped up to play,” Torre said.

The last time the Red Sox were champions, in 1918, Babe Ruth pitched them to two wins in the World Series. In January 1920, he was traded to the Yankees.

The Red Sox may not have one player with Ruthian power but the Yankees must be concerned that nine Boston players have at least 10 homers each, a club record.

“If they play great ball and we struggle, they can be in it again,” said Andy Pettitte (16-7), who is scheduled to pitch Saturday against Martinez (10-3).

With a day off Thursday, Boston’s pitching is set up well with its top three starters facing the Yankees.

Derek Lowe (13-6), coming off his two best starts of the season, faces Jose Contreras (4-1) on Friday night. On Sunday, Tim Wakefield (9-5) pitches for Boston in what would be Roger Clemens’ last performance in Fenway Park unless the teams meet there in the playoffs. Clemens (12-8) struggled against the White Sox this week.

The Yankees lead the season series 7-6, going 3-3 in Boston and 4-3 in New York.

“We come in and sweep this weekend, we’re in great shape to win the division,” Walker said.

But New York’s Derek Jeter is taking a short-term approach.

“You can’t worry (about) it being 1 after the first day and you can’t worry about it being 7 after the first day,” he said. “You have to take it day-by-day.”

New York (81-51) has 30 games left. Boston (77-56) has 29 remaining. The teams will meet again Sept. 5-7 in Yankee Stadium.

But this weekend, the full house of screaming fans will be on Boston’s side.

Fans near the bullpen “do all kinds of things, call you all kinds of names, but I’m not going to get into that,” Yankees closer Mariano Rivera said.

Jason Giambi said the Yankees’ recent problems can be attributed to roster turnover. Seven of their 25 active players weren’t in the organization when the season started.

“We kind of keep turning over the team,” he said. “I think our best ball is yet to come.”

The Red Sox also have seven newcomers to the organization since spring training. And they have at least 10 hits in each of their last eight games.

“Every game matters for us,” catcher Jason Varitek said. “It doesn’t matter if we’re playing Tampa. It doesn’t matter if we’re playing New York. We’ve got to try and build up as many games as possible and keep playing good baseball.”