New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox Fighting Through Similar Problems

As the regular season draws to a close, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox find themselves in familiar spots: Occupying the top two spots of the American League East. However, instead of smooth sailing to the postseason, both teams are dealing with eerily similar pitching woes and are running out of time to fix them. The first issue is at the top of the teams' respective rotations. For Boston, it's ace Josh Beckett, arguably this generation's best big game pitcher. On August 7, after facing A.J. Burnett (more on him later) in a classic pitcher's duel, Beckett appeared to have the inside track to the AL Cy Young award, with a 13-4 record and a 3.12 ERA. Since that memorable game however, Beckett's seen a spate of home runs reminiscent of his disappointing 2006 campaign, when he allowed 36 homers in 204 innings. Over his last five starts Beckett has allowed 14 home runs, and at least two in every start. He gave up five on August 23 against the same Yankees he...