If either the Red Sox or the Yankees have any idea of reaching the World Series, they’re going to have to do it through one another.
The two AL East rivals will meet in the best-of-three wild card series starting on Tuesday in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Wednesday will see Game 2 and Thursday, if necessary, will see who will move onto the division series.
Game 1: Tuesday, 6:08 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 2: Wednesday, 6:08 p.m. ET, ESPN
Game 3 (if necessary): Thursday, 6:08 p.m. ET, ESPN
The winner will advance to take on another AL East rival, the division-winning Blue Jays, in the ALDS.
The Red Sox went 9-4 against the Yankees this season, including a 5-2 record in the Bronx. Garret Crochet will get the nod on the mound for Boston on Tuesday, after he went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA and an MLB-high 255 strikeouts during the regular season. He went 3-0 in his four starts against the Yankees, holding New York hitters to a .200 batting average.
The Yankees will likely have Max Fried start as their Game 1 pitcher. He finished 19-5 with a 2.86 ERA and struck out 189 batters. In two starts against Boston, he went 1-1 with the Yankees batting .275 in those games.
Of course, all eyes will be on Yankees slugger and likely AL MVP Aaron Judge, who finished tops in the league with a .331 batting average and hit 53 homers – good for fourth in MLB this season. It is the fourth time in his career that Judge has reached at least 50 homers.
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Red Sox-Yankees playoff history
A Red Sox-Yankees matchup in the playoffs is becoming a bit of a recent tradition. This will be the sixth time the two teams meet in the playoffs, with the overall matchup tied at 12 games apiece.
Boston beat New York, 6-2, when they last met in the playoffs in the 2021 American League Wild Card Game, which a win-and-advance format prior to the round becoming three-game series. The two teams last met in the ALDS in 2018, which Boston won three games to one on the way to winning the World Series.
Three times, these two teams have squared off in the ALCS, most notably the epic 2004 comeback when when Boston dug out of a three-game deficit and beat the Yanks in seven games. The Red Sox would go on to win their first World Series title in 86 years.
The Yankees won the other two ALCS showdowns, winning in five games in 1999 and in seven games in 2003.
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