New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox Renew Rivalry In Differing Spots In The AL East
The quirks in a schedule often get scenarios like the one about to unfold, the Yankees and Red Sox starting their season series.
Ever since the schedule was reduced to 13 divisional games in 2023 to accommodate playing every team, sometimes it has taken a while for a divisional rivalry to get going and this year it is the case for the Yankees and Red Sox, who will start their season series this weekend.
It is the third straight season the Yankees-Red Sox are starting in June.
Last year, it began June 14 in Fenway Park and the Yankees began their month-long slump they eventually recovered from by winning 94 games and their first AL pennant since 2009. Two years ago, it began June 9 at Yankee Stadium a week after Aaron Judge crashed into the fence in right field at Dodger Stadium to effectively doom the Yankees to a lost summer of 82 wins.
At this point, the Yankees and Red Sox are in different places. The Yankees enter the series with a nice lead atop the AL East where they have resided every day since beating the Kansas City Royals on April 14.
The Yankees are there because of Judge's flirtation with .400, which has him hitting .392 to go along with an astounding 1.251 OPS while playing all 61 games. They are there because the offseason moves following the loss of Juan Soto to a massive 15-year deal with the Mets, a storyline that figures to get all sorts of play over the weekend when FOX follows its coverage of the Belmont Stakes on Saturday and ESPN puts the game up against Game 2 of the NBA finals between the Pacers and Thunder.
The Yankees and Red Sox may be hard-pressed to replicate the end of Game 1 between the Thunder and Pacers when Tyrese Haliburton hit the game-winner with three-tenths of a second. The first installment of the 13-game series is about the Yankees going about their business in the matter-of-fact way they are doing thus far.
One thing not happening is Max Fried getting his first start in the rivalry since he pitched Thursday, though he might pitch next weekend in Fenway. Fried has been everything and more the Yankees could have hoped for, getting to 8-1 through his first 11 starts with the mix of dominance and grit.
The latter occurred Thursday when Fried put two on with two outs in the first and then won an eight-pitch battle with Carlos Santana. Santana's at-bat started a run of 11 straight retired hitters and 15 of 16 though there were several long counts and 16 foul balls.
It was the kind of outing the Red Sox hoped Fried would provide for them but Fried opted for the eight-year, $218 million deals to join a rotation headed by Gerrit Cole. Cole is three months removed from Tommy John surgery on his elbow thus the storyline with him and Rafael Devers is on hold until next season.
Cole underwent the surgery about six months after a bizarre intentional walk to Devers, who is 9-for-33 in their matchups.
Devers was playing third base back then and has yet to see the field this year. Devers was moved off the position when Alex Bregman was signed and is still only hitting as Bregman recovers from a quad strain sustained May 23.
Devers got the game-winning hit in the game after Bregman's injury but the Red Sox went from five to 9 1/2 games out since. They head to the Bronx with eight losses in 11 games, including five by one run, an area where the Red Sox dropped 17 of 23 so far.
The rough start through 64 games is part of a team with an MLB-worst 53 errors after struggling defensively last season when Devers made 12 errors and had a .961 fielding percentage in his 130 games at third.
Naturally all of Boston's faults are after some raised expectations, leading to questions about Alex Cora's job security and it is secure based on comments chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made this week on WEEI.
This weekend will be hyped because the Red Sox-Yankees often are, though nothing will be like 2003 through 2007. It will be about the Yankees continuing to go about things in their business like matter and the Red Sox trying to find their footing to climb closer to .500 and eventually over the break-even mark.
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