Three Storylines To Watch In This Weekend's Yankees-Red Sox Series

• As the historic rivals battle for the first time in 2020, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox seem to be headed in opposite directions.

• The Yankees will get their first look at Masahiro Tanaka and Jordan Montgomery this year, while hoping James Paxton can find his velocity.

• The Red Sox need their elite bats to find their groove to overcome a lack of talent on the pitching staff.

• Visit our game predictions page to see which bet our MLB model prefers in Friday's series opener between the Red Sox and Yankees!

Tanaka, Montgomery Make Debuts; Paxton Looks To Rebound

Due to the New York Yankees having two unscheduled days off this week after two games against the Philadelphia Phillies were postponed, they have gotten through their first five games only having to use three different starting pitchers. Mega free agent acquisition Gerrit Cole was able to pitch twice, and now the Yankees will get to see more of what they have behind him. New York knows what they have in their ace, but they will need rotation depth to reach expectations as World Series champions.

After missing nearly all of 2019 following Tommy John surgery, lefty Jordan Montgomery makes his return to the mound on Friday. Montgomery looked terrific in summer camp for the Yankees with his fastball reaching the mid-90’s after averaging 91.7 miles per hour on his heater for his career. The extra velocity could be huge as Montgomery already has a devastating curveball.

On Saturday, Masahiro Tanaka will make his season debut after missing time with a concussion due to getting hit in the face by a line drive in camp. While having inconsistencies in the regular-season, Tanaka has a 1.76 ERA in eight postseason starts.

James Paxton was one of the best pitchers in the MLB in the second half of last season, but offseason back surgery has seemed to hinder his progress. He couldn't record an out in the second inning in his season debut last week in Washington D.C., and his average fastball velocity was just 91.8 miles per hour, which was the lowest mark of his career. Paxton's fastball averaged 95.7 miles per hour last season and he has always relied on being a power pitcher.

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Gardner, Sanchez Look To Break Slumps

With one the deepest and most powerful lineups in the MLB, the Yankees can afford to have a couple of players in a slump and survive just fine. Still, both left fielder Brett Gardner and catcher Gary Sanchez headed into Thursday night looking for their first hits of the season. Surprisingly, Gardner had one of the best seasons of his career at age-35 with 28 home runs, a .344 wOBA, and a 115 wRC+ last campaign. The Yankees would rather stick with Gardner since he's a huge leader on the club, but competition for at-bats is stiff for him with Mike Tauchman and Miguel Andujar waiting in the wings.

Tauchman was one of the best defensive outfielders in the league last year while earning a .364 wOBA and a 128 wRC+ across 296 at-bats. Andujar, who is back after missing most of the 2019 campaign due to injury, has now made the shift to the outfield. His bat helped him finish second in the AL Rookie of the Year voting in 2018.

Sanchez has no competition for his job like Gardner, but has been brutal with eight strikeouts in 12 at-bats entering Thursday. His history as one of the top hitting catchers in MLB suggests he can turn it around quickly.

Sluggish Start For Boston

In just about all areas, it has been a struggle for the Red Sox to start the 2020 campaign. Headed into Thursday, their four stud hitters -- Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, J.D. Martinez, and Andrew Benintendi -- had combined for just one home run and were hitting .181 as a foursome.

While their struggles have come as a surprise, the performance of the Boston pitching staff certainly has not. The Red Sox as a staff rank 27th in baseball with a 5.83 ERA. The only two bright spots have been two starts by Nathan Eovaldi and four innings of scoreless ball in a relief appearance for Zack Godley.

With Chris Sale out for the year and Eduardo Rodriguez still battling with COVID-19 complications, it’s difficult to see how things can turn around in the pitching department. It’s just not the talent level that you have come to expect from the Red Sox organization. Boston’s bats should be able to find their groove eventually, and there would be no better time than this weekend against the Yankees.

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