Pete Abraham has the scoop:
The Red Sox chose the eight-day series, meaning the Yankees will open their series against Cleveland on Thursday at Jacobs Field.
The schedule (times TBA)
Thursday, Oct. 4: Game One at Cleveland
Friday, Oct. 5: Game Two at Cleveland
Sunday Oct. 7: Game Three at New York
Monday Oct. 8: Game Four at New York (if necessary)
Wednesday Oct. 10: Game Five at Cleveland (if necessary)
This means that Mike Mussina or Phil Hughes would start Game 4 if needed and Chien-Ming Wang could come back for Game 5.
Obviously, this also means that Fausto Carmona will not take the ball twice in the series and the Yanks will likely face Paul Byrd in Game 4 instead. I have no problem with that.
Also, Kim Jones reported on the YES postgame that Hideki Matsui has been sent back to NY to get his knee drained. It will not keep him out of the lineup, but he will be limited to DH duties. I don’t consider this a big deal since he wasn’t likely to play the field much in the postseason anyways.