It\u2019s been several years since a September Red Sox\/Yankees series mattered as much as this one.<\/p>\n
The eternal rivals entered their last series of the regular season in possession of the American League\u2019s first (Yankees) and second (Red Sox) Wild Cards. New York is three games back from the Toronto Blue Jays in the division standings. Boston is three and a half.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a far cry from their four-game series two years ago, when the prize was fourth place, instead of last, in the the division, and tickets were going for a dollar plus fees. Entering the weekend 81-66, the Red Sox are one victory away from their first winning season since 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt hasn\u2019t been this way since \u201821,\u201d manager Alex Cora said Friday afternoon. \u201cJust being around the city yesterday, everybody\u2019s excited. It\u2019s Yankees, Red Sox, national TV on Sunday. So, this should be fun\u2026 It\u2019s Fenway Park against them. So we\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yet Cora wants this weekend to feel like any other series for his many rookies, including the two pitchers called up in the three weeks since the rivals faced off at Yankee Stadium: Payton Tolle and Connelly Early.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe same way we dealt with Sacramento: don\u2019t make it too big, or don\u2019t make it too low,\u201d Cora said. \u201cIt\u2019s still big-league games that we have to win, and we have played well against them throughout the season. We expect the same thing this weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n
Try as Cora might, his Red Sox know this weekend is different. It was evident around town on Friday. The rookies have also been hearing about it from their veteran teammates.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was talking to Tolle when we got in (from Sacramento) at 2 a.m. Thursday,\u201d right-hander Garrett Whitlock told the Herald, \u201cI was like, \u2018Hey man, you\u2019re about to see real baseball right here. It\u2019s not Sacramento. This is Boston when it\u2019s Red Sox-Yankees. You\u2019re about to see a real atmosphere,\u2019 and he was pumped.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the active roster, Whitlock is the only remaining pitcher from the \u201821 team. He played a key role in the final year of the single-game, winner-take-all Wild Card format. Stolen from the Yankees in the Rule 5 Draft less than a year earlier, the rookie found himself on the mound for the bottom of the ninth, just as veteran teammate and fellow ex-Yankee Adam Ottavino predicted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the bullpen, he was like, \u2018You realize AC\u2019s gonna go to you here, right?\u2019\u201d Whitlock told the Herald. \u201cI was like, \u2018Well, I mean he could definitely go to you, too.\u2019 He said, \u2018Poetic justice to go to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my favorite memory in baseball,\u201d Whitlock said. \u201cGetting the last out there in the game, being the last guy on the mound, having (catcher Christian V\u00e1zquez) jump in my arms, team dogpile on top of us, that\u2019s by far my favorite memory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Left-hander Kyle Harrison isn\u2019t a rookie, but he\u2019s never faced the Yankees before. After becoming a member of the Red Sox organization in June\u2019s Rafael Devers trade, he pitched in Triple-A Worcester until this week. In an odd twist of fate, Harrison made his Red Sox debut in Sacramento, at the minor league ballpark where he\u2019d spent years as a Giants prospect.<\/p>\n
On Friday, Harrison finally walked into Fenway as a member of the home team, just in time to join a rivalry he\u2019d watched all his life. He recalled nights locked in on David Ortiz and Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Mark Teixiera. He said he needed to pick Brayan Bello\u2019s brain about dominating the Yankees; Bello\u2019s career 1.95 ERA against the Yankees is the best mark by any major league pitcher with at least 10 starts against them since the Live Ball Era began in 1921.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s what you dream of as a kid,\u201d Harrison told the Herald. \u201cFor this to be (my) home ballpark, it\u2019s crazy. So I\u2019m just excited for this matchup and this rivalry, and just thrilled to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Before the rivals got underway, the Red Sox engaged in a little psychological warfare. After a rivalry highlight reel set to Coolio\u2019s \u201cGangsta\u2019s Paradise,\u201d two of the architects of New York\u2019s most humiliating choke job walked out of the Red Sox dugout to an instantaneous and thunderous standing ovation.<\/p>\n
Pedro Martinez on the mound. Jason Varitek crouched behind home plate.<\/p>\n
Play ball.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Originally Published: September 12, 2025 at 8:08 PM EDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been several years since a September Red Sox\/Yankees series mattered as much as this one. The eternal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2376],"tags":[106,5,48,1350,22923,4,2303,1690,62,2548,2547,10873,142],"class_list":{"0":"post-311538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york-yankees","8":"tag-aaron-judge","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-fenway-park","12":"tag-jason-varitek","13":"tag-mlb","14":"tag-mlb-postseason","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-yankees","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkyankees","19":"tag-pedro-martinez","20":"tag-yankees"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115194357680875905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}