How to watch the Red Sox at Yankees series: Baseball's foremost feud, in weekend primetime
The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees have a surefire top-five rivalry in all of American sports. This latest edition gets early-summer weekend staging and a national finale on 'Sunday Night Baseball.' As one Bronx luminary says, it is both up and stuck. From the 'Curse of the Bambino' to the 2024 ALCS comeback, this matchup has yielded a century of pure classics. One time for Aaron Boone and Bucky Dent … or, for those of another persuasion, one time for Dave Roberts and Carl Yastrzemski.
Sunday's game will also be available on ESPN+.
Boston is at a critical juncture with its season slipping away. The Red Sox went 16-11 in April but stumbled to 11-17 in May. They've won just three of their last 10 games. Five of their last eight losses have come by one run.
There are some highlights on offense though. The Red Sox ranked inside the top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging. Rafael Devers has the best on-base percentage of his nine-year career (.408).
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New York's bats are bashing, headlined, of course, by Triple Crown contender Aaron Judge. The all-galaxy hitter is on pace for an MLB Slugfest-level of work: 57 HR, 135 RBI and 148 runs, with league-best marks in all three slashing categories.
The Yanks are no solo show, though. They start this series third in the majors in runs scored.
A pair of righties start the proceedings on Friday. Boston's Walker Buehler is 4-3 with a 4.44 ERA since his arrival from the World Series spotlight. Will Warren brings a bloated 5.19 ERA to the bump.
The Saturday game serves up top-shelf lefty-on-lefty stuff. Resurgent veteran and finesse specialist Ryan Yarbrough is placing the ball brilliantly so far. Hilariously, he's up to the 99th percentile in average exit velocity and the bottom 1 percentile in fastball velo. He's up against Boston's Garrett Crochet, who has a sub-2 ERA and the second-most strikeouts in MLB.
The 'Sunday Night Baseball' finale pits 25-year-old Red Sox right-hander Hunter Dobbins against pinstriped lefty star Carlos Rodón (8-3, 2.49 ERA, fourth in Ks).
Red Sox-Yankees from the NYT archives, 2003:
'As the biggest hit of Aaron Boone's life sailed into the seats down the left-field line, Mariano Rivera raced for the mound and knelt there, kissing the dirt and thanking God. Boone danced around the bases, raising his arms, beaming, grinning wildly. And there was Rivera, overcome with joy, the kind of mystical October euphoria that has sometimes seemed out of reach for these Yankees, celebrating in his own way…
The Yankees rode Rivera's effort and Boone's blast to a 6-5 victory in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series, completing a stirring comeback against their tortured century-old rival. Boone, who had struggled for months and was not in the starting lineup last night, accomplished the unthinkable: a sudden strike to win the pennant, an instant spot in the pantheon of Yankee legends.' — Tyler Kepner
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Most homers for Boston vs. New York
Most homers for New York vs. Boston
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(Photo of Aaron Judge: Al Bello / Getty Images)
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