Rival Yanks are spoiling Red Sox start

Seven games in May. The Red Sox and the Yankees. A battle for first place in the American League. Two teams off to one of their best starts ever. The Red Sox and the Yankees. Kind of makes your heart race, doesn’t it?

It is only May, but as any team in any sport that just missed the postseason can attest, the wins and losses in the first two months of a season show up in the same columns come the end of the season. When you have a chance to beat the team you’re chasing, whenever it is, you need to get it done. Best of all for fans in this situation, it’s the Yankees and the Red Sox.

The Sox will get the Yankees at home on the 22nd, 23rd and 24th of this month and then go to New York for four games the 28th-31st. The teams will not face each other again until September!

That is the problem with the interleague schedule. It detracts from great matchups such as this by substituting National League games in the middle of the season when the Sox and Yankees would have played each other again. So, enjoy now.

Last year, the Yanks won the season series 8-4 as the Sox went 2-4 at both Fenway and New York. The Yankees hold the all-time advantage 996-812.

The Yankees have won the season series four of the past five years and the Sox have not won a season series of games in New York since 1991. The Sox have lost their matchups in New York for eight of the past 10 years.

Just how good is the Red Sox start? Well, the folks at the Elias Sports Bureau in New York who crunch some wonderfully interesting numbers for all of the pro leagues came up with some gems recently on the Sox.

The Sox won 21 of their first 30 games. In 1952 the New York Giants won 22 of their first 30 and trailed the Brooklyn Dodgers by a half a game. Since then, 47 teams have won at least 21 of their first 30 and the Sox are the ONLY team among them not to be in first place at that point. The curse can be hurtful.

The Sox and the Yankees won 14 of 15 games through April 27. That marked the only time in this century that two teams in the same league had 14 or more wins over a span of 15 games at the same time. It would have to be the Yanks, wouldn’t it Sox fans.

The Sox continue to put up the comeback and last-at-bat wins. A dangerous way to live on the one hand, or is it just a sign that something magical is happening here? Last year the Sox lead the AL in wins where they trailed going into the ninth inning. The major league record for such wins in two consecutive years is 17, set by the Cleveland Indians in 1995-96. The Sox have a shot at that mark, although manager Jimy Williams would rather win some of those games in the fourth or fifth innings.

The Yankees are off to their best start since 1958 and have done little wrong. Manager Joe Torre says he just tries not to interfere at this point. Both of these clubs know it can’t go on like this for a full season, but no one can take the wins away from you once you have them, no matter what the month you won them in.

So, there’s a little tease to hold onto until the end of the month when the Sox and Yanks get to do it face to face. For Sox fans, the hope is they can maintain the current pace until they get to those games. Minnesota, Kansas City and the White Sox, teams next up on the Red Sox schedule, would love to catch Boston looking ahead.

For those of us who are Sox fans, dare we believe, or do we just put our hands over our heads and wait for the roof to cave in?

NEWS columnist Gary Thorne, an Old Town native, is an ESPN and CBS broadcaster.