Red Sox Will Need to Beat CC Sabathia in Order to Sweep Yankees, But There Is Hope for Boston

Editor's note: The following is an excerpt from a longer conversation between Michael Hurley and WFAN.com's Neil Keefe. You can read their entire conversation by clicking here.

Friday night, I love the Red Sox' chances against Bartolo Colon (surprise, surprise), particularly with Jon Lester going for Boston. Of course, saying that, you know Colon's throwing a perfect game. I actually covered one of Colon's rehab starts in Pawtucket back in '08. If you told me that same guy could have a 3.30 ERA through 16 starts that year, I wouldn’t have believed you. But three years later? That's some sick joke.

I obviously fear CC Sabathia on Saturday against John Lackey, who's been trouble this year (though he is 4-0 with a 3.41 ERA in his last five starts). However, there's reason for Boston to be optimistic: The Yankees are 18-3 when Sabathia pitches against teams from anywhere other than Boston this year, but he's 0-3 against the Sox. He's given up six runs in two of those starts, and he has a 6.16 ERA against Boston this year.

Now, the other side says that, well, is he really going to throw three stinkers against the same team? Possible, I suppose, but my money would be on him having a classic CC game where he just rolls right through everyone.

Then Sunday night, forget about it. Josh Beckett loves national television. He eats it up. Baseball-Reference.com needs to add "Fox or ESPN Game" to its split page. I guarantee Beckett might be the all-time leader. Maybe I made all that up, but it's a gut feeling.

I have the Sox taking two of three.

Read the whole conversation about the upcoming battle for first place by clicking here.