This might get me excommunicated from the entire tristate area, but the rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox has felt ... a little tame of late, no? Don't get me wrong: There's never any love lost here, especially among these two fan bases, and obviously each team wants to beat the other. But over the last few years, a certain collegiality had settled in; the games no longer felt like bloodfeuds, a far cry from the days of Pedro Martinez tossing Don Zimmer to the ground. Sure, some of that probably had to do with how infrequently the teams now met in the postseason, but still — it was hard to avoid feeling like The Rivalry now felt more like a museum piece than a living, breathing thing.
Luckily, though, that's all about to change in a big, big way. As Boston descends on the Bronx for a four-game set at Yankee Stadium beginning on Thursday night, there's more electricity in the air than we've had in quite some time. And that's because there's more than just Wild Card positioning on the line — for the first time in a long time, there are legacies to be made, the sort of urgency and rabidity that once made the rivalry so singular.
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Red Sox-Yankees rivalry needs a shot in the arm
What this matchup has really been crying out for is a shot in the arm, an injection of new blood to make everything feel fresh again: Think Jeter vs. Nomar in the 90s, or A-Rod and Big Papi in the 00s. All due respect to players like Aaron Judge, Gerrit Cole and Rafael Devers, none of them captured our imagination as personalities in that way. Yankees-Red Sox used to feel Shakespearean; lately, though, it's begun to just feel like baseball — baseball played against the brother you love to get one over on, sure, but baseball all the same.
This time feels different, though. Maybe it's because of the fresh faces: Alex Bregman, injured the first time New York came to Fenway this season, will finally make his rivalry debut, as well outfield phenom Roman Anthony. The Yankees, meanwhile, have undergone a youth movement of their own, from pitchers Will Warren and Cam Schlittler to bats like Ben Rice and Jasson Dominguez. These players are young, hungry and looking to make their mark, and they contribute to a real sense of beginning for both teams: Get ready, because a new generation is here, one that will be warring atop the AL East for years to come (all apologies to the actual division-leading Toronto Blue Jays, of course).
Yankees and Red Sox series has playoff implications
Which brings us to the last and, potentially, most important point: It's been a while since these teams actually went at it for something meaningful. There was the Wild Card game in 2021, and the ALDS in 2018, both won by Boston. But for the most part, that sense of inevitability — that the AL was going to run through this rivalry — had been missing. Now, though, the American League is as wide open as it's been in some time, and both teams have reason to believe that, to steal a phrase, it's all right in front of them.
Fans of both teams have picked up on that sense, too. Yankees fans felt after last year's World Series loss like maybe the Aaron Judge era was simply doomed, but the emergence of Rice and the other young guys have helped breathe new life. Boston, meanwhile, is in the midst of turning its bevy of top prospects into young big-league talent; the Red Sox are capturing the imagination of New England in late summer the way they haven't in a little while now.
All of which will converge this weekend, in a four-game set that will either throw the AL Wild Card race into even more chaos or vault one of these teams back into contention with Toronto for the division title. The stakes are high, the stage is set, and finally, at long last, we've got something to dream on that feels bigger than just a game.