It is arguably the greatest rivalry in professional sports, the Red Sox and the Yankees, boiled down to a nine-inning fight for survival. One team will advance to face the Rays in the American League Division Series, and the other will go home.
What could be better than that? This year’s American League Wild Card Game promises to be one for the ages, played on the storied turf at Boston’s Fenway Park on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET. The game will be televised on ESPN.
“That’s going to be a fun game right there,” said the Yankees’ Aaron Judge. “It’s going to be action-packed. You know they’re going to bring their ‘A’ game. We’re going to bring our ‘A’ game. It’s just going to go down as another great game in this big rivalry we have.”
Forty three years ago, the Red Sox hosted the Yankees in a one-game playoff that is still chronicled and dissected to this day, best remembered for Bucky Dent’s go-ahead homer that cleared the Green Monster and helped send New York toward their 1978 World Series championship.
Someone will be the hero on Tuesday, and if it’s anything like the long ball that earned Dent a permanent middle name within New England, it might just define their career.
“We’ll be ready,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “It should be fun. I think baseball enjoys it. I think our fans will show up on Tuesday and make Fenway feel like home.”
What are the projected starting lineups?
This is the new-look Yankees lineup with DJ LeMahieu having landed on the injured list with a sports hernia that will require surgery after the season. Torres has enjoyed his cameo thus far at the top of the order. They pieced together a nice rally in the ninth inning of Game 162; Odor singled, Torres advanced pinch-runner Tyler Wade with a deep fly ball and Rizzo singled before Judge knocked in the run that clinched the Yanks’ Wild Card spot.
The Red Sox were spotty at the plate over the season’s final 10 days, but they took some of their best swings in clinching Game No. 162 against the Nats. That will need to carry over. There’s a chance Christian Vázquez gets the nod behind the plate, but Plawecki and starting pitcher Nathan Eovaldi have been an effective battery all season, particularly of late.
Who are the starting pitchers?
The ace right-hander will be pitching on regular rest, one start removed from a solid effort to defeat the Red Sox at Fenway on Sept. 24, when he picked up his 16th victory of the year. Cole allowed a three-run homer to Devers in that outing. Cole is 2-2 with a 6.15 ERA over his last five starts, a span that likely allowed the Blue Jays’ Robbie Ray to grab the Cy Young Award. Cole has dealt with a left hamstring injury and some wonder if he is showing signs of fatigue from a 181 1/3-inning workload, though he said there is plenty left in the tank.
Backed by a deep pitch mix and health, Eovaldi enjoyed his finest overall season in 2021. In his first five starts against the Yankees this season, Eovaldi allowed two earned runs or less each time out. Then came the fateful sixth on Sept. 24, when the Yankees crushed him for seven hits and seven runs in just 2 2/3 innings. Eovaldi has mainly mastered the Bombers since coming to Boston in ’18. Anyone who watched the ’18 postseason remembers that the October spotlight is clearly not too bright for Eovaldi.
How will the bullpens line up after the starter?
The Yanks’ relief corps has taken on a new look in recent weeks with the returns of Luis Severino and Domingo Germán, both of whom provide manager Aaron Boone with multi-inning options. Boone’s late-inning circle of trust centers heavily upon Jonathan Loáisiga, Chad Green and Clay Holmes, with Wandy Peralta drawing the most crucial left-on-left assignments. Michael King has been excellent and could provide four outs or more if needed, with all of them leading up to closer Aroldis Chapman.
This can be tricky for the Red Sox, as Cora has mainly mixed and matched with his relievers ever since Matt Barnes lost the closer’s role in August. Don’t try to predict whom Cora will use in the ninth inning, because it could be just about anyone. Garrett Whitlock, who just came back from a right pectoral strain in the final game of the regular season, has been Cora’s best reliever all season.
Rookie Tanner Houck also has an electric power arm and it will be interesting to see if he is available after throwing five perfect innings on 53 pitches on Saturday. Ryan Brasier had a late-season resurgence, so he will likely be asked to get some big outs. Hirokazu Sawamura, Adam Ottavino and Garrett Richards are other righties Cora will go to in important situations. Austin Davis has been a strong left-on-left option. It will be fascinating to see how many starting pitchers the Red Sox have on their roster for the Wild Card Game. Cora isn’t shy about going with “rovers” as he calls them in October.
Gio Urshela tumbled down the steps of the visiting dugout at Yankee Stadium while making a terrific play on Sunday, later saying that he was experiencing soreness in his right thigh as well as his elbow and calf. Urshela said that Monday’s off-day should help him recover and he expects to be ready for the Wild Card Game. DJ LeMahieu is out until at least a potential AL Championship Series with a sports hernia, and Luke Voit’s season ended Sunday when he was placed on the 60-day injured list with left knee inflammation.
J.D. Martinez tripped over second base while running out to play defense in the final regular-season game and sprained his left ankle. It would be significant news if he is unable to go on Tuesday night. The Sox will likely be without their top lefty reliever in Josh Taylor, who spent the final portion of the season on the injured list with a low back strain.
Who is hot and who is not?
Giancarlo Stanton was a one-man wrecking crew during the Yankees’ most recent visit to Fenway, when he crushed three homers and drove in 10 runs across the Bombers’ three-game sweep. Since Aug. 23, Stanton is batting .295 (41-for-139) with 15 homers and 36 RBIs. Judge is hitting .325 (13-for-40) in his last 12 games, including three doubles, four homers and 13 RBIs.
Gerrit Cole is 2-2 with a 6.15 ERA in his last five starts, compared to 14-6 with a 2.73 ERA in the 25 starts before that. Joey Gallo has two hits in his last 23 at-bats, and one was a bunt single.
Rafael Devers, the best hitter on the Red Sox, got hot again in the final weekend of the season. That’s great news, as Devers can carry a lineup when he’s hot. He was 4-for-5 with two homers in the final regular-season game.
Xander Bogaerts, Boston’s team leader and owner of two World Series rings, is the definition of “not hot.” Bogaerts has looked out of sync at the plate since Sept. 24, notching just five hits in his final 32 at-bats of the regular season and none for extra bases.
Anything else fans want to know?
The Yankees have played in three of the eight AL Wild Card Games since its inception in 2012. New York lost to the Astros in ’15, then defeated the Indians in ’17 and beat the Athletics in ’18. This is the first time the Yanks will play in the Wild Card Game on the road. This is the first time the Red Sox have played in the Wild Card Game.
While the Red Sox and Yankees played ALCS Game 7s at Yankee Stadium in 2003 and ’04, this will be the first win-or-go-home contest between the squads at Fenway since game No. 163 in 1978. The Red Sox were a strong team at home this season (49-32), but the Yankees were nearly that good (46-35) on the road.