One of the oldest baseball rivalries is between the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox. The two teams have never liked each other since Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees for $125k to finance a Broadway production he was involved with. As history has shown, Ruth became one of the best baseball players in the game. He hit many home runs off his old team and set the fire for the rivalry.
Before the “Babe,” the Yankees had not won a World Series, but they won four Championships after acquiring him. Ruth was so popular with the Yankees that the increased fans allow the Yankees to build their first new stadium. It was called “the house that Ruth built.” More recently, the Yankees have won a total of 27 World Championships to the Red Sox 9. The most recent win for the Yankees was in 2009 and 2018 for the Sox.
The rivalry causes heated conversations between fans of both teams due to the closeness of Yankees Stadium and Fenway Park that often leads to a beer being poured over a head. It seldom gets gruesome, but the opposing fans don’t like each other as one so frequently caused the other to lose a game, series, or postseason.
The teams faced each other in the AL Championship three times. The New York Yankees won twice, in 1999 and 2003. The Red Sox won in 2014. The two teams have also met once in the Division Series (ALDS), in 2018, with Boston winning 3-1, a series which included a 16-1 Red Sox win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the most lopsided postseason loss for the Yankees in their history.
Whether the two teams are playing at Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park in Boston, the games are exciting and take on an intensity seldom seen between teams. Tonight they renew that rivalry at Fenway Park.
Tonight, June 25th, 7:10 pm:Â
In Boston, the Yankees will send out starter Domingo German to face the Red Sox Martin Perez tonight at Fenway Park. German other than two games, has been one of the Yankee’s most dependable pitchers. However, he is coming off two of his worst starts of the year, giving up more runs in the two games than he has since April. But he can be lights out at his best, which the Yankees hope is the case tonight. He is 4-4 with an ERA of 4.17 with 63 strikeouts. Tonight will be his thirteenth start of the season, with the Yankees winning eight of his starts.
German will face Martin Perez, who is 5-4 with an ERA of 4.32; the two pitchers stat-wise are pretty evenly paired. Perez is coming off a 7-1 win over the Kansas City Royals when he gave up just one run over five innings, striking out 3 Royals. Giancarlo Stanton, of all Yankees, has hit the best off of Perez. Stanton has a .429 batting average off him with 2 home runs in 7 plate appearances. Tonight’s game will be on the YES Network, NESN, and MLBN out of market.
Saturday, June 26th, 7:15 pm:Â
The Saturday evening game will feature Jordan Montgomery for the Yankees and Nathan Eovaldi for the Red Sox. Montgomery is coming off one of his best games of the season. Against the Oakland Athletics, he allowed just a solo home run in the Yankees 2-1 win. The New York Yankees have won his last six starts in a row. He is 3-1 with a 4.03 ERA.
Eovaldi is an ex-Yankee pitcher that has done very well with the Red Sox. He is 7-4 with an ERA of 3.90 in 15 starts. He is coming off a loss to the Kansas City Royals when he gave up 3 runs in only four innings of work. The Red Sox has won nine of his fifteen starts on the season. Saturday’s game is a nationally televised game on the FOX Network.
Sunday, June 27th, 1:10 pm:
Sunday’s matinee will be ace against ace. The Yankees will have Gerrit Cole on the mound, and the Red Sox will send Eduardo Rodriguez to face Cole. Gerrit Cole is 8-3 with a 2.33 ERA. Cole has been solid for the Yankees despite getting little run support in his games. He is coming off a June 22nd loss when he went seven innings, giving up just two runs, but the Yankee bullpen failed him. Cole has an unbelievable 123 strikeouts on the season.
After sitting out last season due to heart problems caused by the coronavirus, Eduardo Rodriguez has pitched well for the Red Sox this season, going 5-4 but with an elevated ERA of 6.07. The Red Sox lineup has given E-Rod a lot of run support. He is coming off an eleventh inning win over the Tampa Bay Rays. However, he gave up all five runs that the Rays scored. Sunday’s matinee will be broadcast on YES, NESN, and nationally on TBS.