Two important divisional series are on the baseball schedule on Friday, as the Red Sox and Yankees continue their four-game tilt while the Mets and Phillies get their own four-game set underway.

Like it or not, the Yankees are starting to make some noise in the AL East and are slowly closing ground on the second-place Red Sox. Before this four-gamer began on Thursday night, only four games separated the two rivals in the East. The Yankees will try to continue cutting into that lead tonight, but the pitching matchup seems to favor Boston.

In Friday's game the Sox send Josh Beckett to the mound, while the Yankees go with Darrell Rasner. Beckett is coming off a no-decision against the Astros in which he allowed two runs in seven innings. The Yankees opened as small +105 home dogs here according to online sportsbook . Click here for the matchup report with all kinds of great baseball trends.

The Boston ace has faced the Yankees twice this season and he's come away with the win both times while registering a 3.80 ERA. Rasner has been a constant loser for New York lately with a 1-6 record in his last seven starts. In his last outing, Rasner took the loss after giving up two runs in five innings to the Mets.

The expected pitching matchups for the rest of this series include Justin Masterson versus New York's Mike Mussina on Saturday, and Boston's Tim Wakefield versus Joba Chamberlain on Sunday.

In the National League, the big series starting on Friday is a critical one for the Mets because they sit only 4.5 games behind Philadelphia for the NL East lead. New York has a good chance to start the series off right with Johan Santana on the mound on Friday.

The Phillies' starter for Friday's game will be minor-league callup J.A. Happ, who was summoned on Thursday after veteran Brett Myers was demoted by the Phillies. Click here for the matchup report, where the Mets opened as -130 road favorites at .

Santana enters Friday's game having lost his last three starts, and he's 0-4 in his last five. He didn't pitch badly in his last outing, allowing three runs on four hits while striking out eight in six innings versus the Yankees, but he was still tagged with the loss.

Santana faced Philadelphia back in April and picked up the win after giving up three runs in seven innings while striking out 10.

Following the duel between Santana and Happ (0-0, 0.00 ERA), will be John Maine for the Mets and Jamie Moyer for the Phillies on Saturday.

Sunday's scheduled starters are New York's Oliver Perez and Philly's Kyle Kendrick, while on Monday Pedro Martinez goes for New York and Adam Eaton gets the call for Philadelphia.

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