Sox and Yankees begin HUGE five game set with doubleheader today

Yankees (70-48) at Red Sox (69-50)
1:05 PM at Fenway Park
Yankees have 1 1/2 game lead in AL East
Sox trail Chicago for Wild Card by 2 1/2
Game 1 Wang (13-5, 3.84 ERA) vs. Johnson (3-11, 6.26 ERA)

Line-up

Yankees

Damon CF
Jeter SS
Abreu RF
Giambi DH
A-Rod 3B
Cano 2B
Posada C
Wilson 1B
Cabrera LF

Wang P

Red Sox

Crisp CF
Loretta 2B
Ortiz DH
Ramirez LF
Youkilis 1B
Lowell 3B
Hinske RF
Lopez C
Gonzalez SS

Johnson P

Red Sox Notes: Team is expected to activate reliever Keith Foulke before Game 2...Expect them to demote Game 1 starter Jason Johnson regardless of how he pitches..Boston will throw newly acquired utility man Eric Hinske right into the fire hitting him seventh and having him play the tricky Fenway Park right field...Doug Mirabelli will catch Jon Lester in Game 2...Terry Francona summed up who'll win the series pretty well in this quote, "I think the series will begin, and end with pitching...You need to throw strikes. They're such a great line-up. If you walk them they become devastating."

Yankees notes: Yankees catcher Jorge Posada celebrated his 35th birthday yesterday, and it appears the Yankees will be careful with him this series catching him in only three of the five games giving Sal Fassano the start tonight, and on Monday...Jason Giambi will play first base tonight, and Bernie Williams will enter the line-up against Lester...Don't expect to see Yankees manager Joe Torre doing any exclusive on camera interviews for ESPN this series as the Yankees skipper is boycotting the network do to what he sees as "Sportscenter's" negative treatment of the Yankees and particularily A-Rod.

Being A-Rod: Love him or hate him it would be interesting to spend a day in his shoes. Just sitting next to him in the dugout I got a good feel for what it would be like. After taking some grounders he sat down on the bench to drink some water before batting practice. In the two minutes he sat there a TV camera filmed him drinking and spitting for a minute, and three still cameras snapped away at him. Imagine that happening at your job? While your sitting at your desk you're being constantly filmed for millions of people to see. I said to him, "How do you deal with being constantly photographed? I couldn't take it. Does it get to you?" He said nothing, and shook his head. Despite the money, and makes a ton of it. I don't know if I'd want to be him.