Of course neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox are in first place as they begin a four-game series on Thursday night at the Stadium. Somehow this still feels like the beginning of an abbreviated Yankee-Red Sox summer over the next couple of weeks, here and then at Fenway Park, even if the stakes might just be a wild card this time. These games matter. They always do. Just some more than others. Like these.
If the Yankees or the Sox — or both — are going to be serious teams in October after theme-park-ride seasons for both of them, they need to start showing that now, and against each other.
They seemed to be going in different directions the last time they met at Fenway two months ago. The Yankees came into that one at 42-26, nearly as many games over .500 as they’ve been all season. The Red Sox were 10 games behind in the loss column, at 35-36. But then the Red Sox swept them. And seemed to have turned two seasons around in the moment.
The Yankees, despite the way they have gotten themselves turned around over the last week against a schedule softer than soft ice cream, have been 26-31 since the start of that series against the Red Sox in June. The Sox — who have stumbled over the past week at the same time the Yankees have started winning — not only caught the Yankees eventually, they passed them in the wild card race until the past few days.
While the Yankees were mashing nine home runs against the Rays on Tuesday night at Steinbrenner Field, the Red Sox were leaving the bases loaded three straight times in the late innings without scoring a run against the last-place Orioles before finally losing, 4-3. That one basically ended when Nate Eaton didn’t try to score from third in the bottom of the 10th on a one-out fly ball to Colton Cowser, right before Cowser unleashed a throw toward the infield that seemed headed for Jersey St.
So now the Yankees are back ahead of the Red Sox in the standings, and once again thinking about taking dead aim at the Blue Jays. Through Tuesday night, the Yankees had won eight of their last 11. The Red Sox had lost eight of their last 12. Suddenly both teams seemed headed in different directions again.
Only now they are headed for the Stadium, which will be full of real noise and real life this weekend for the first time in months, really since the Red Sox knocked the Yankees down — and unexpectedly — the way they did in June. And all of a sudden fan-favorite Aaron Boone looks like he might be some kind of baseball prophet for constantly telling the media and that fan base that “It’s right in front of us.”
In Tampa the other night Boone seemed surprised when told that his team had hit nine home runs in a game for the second time this season.
“We hit nine?” he said at first.
Then this: “Wow.”
Finally this: “There were some ones that were really hit, too.”
They sure were, starting with back-to-back-to-back homers from Aaron Judge (No. 40) and Cody Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton, who was back in the outfield against the Rays, though it always remains to be seen how safe that really is for him out there. But as always, across all the seasons when Brian Cashman has built his team around home runs, the Yankees look like world beaters — and World Series here they come! — when ball are flying out of the park like this. Until they stop flying out of ballparks at some point, and the Yankees aren’t world beaters. Again.
The Yankees are hitting again at the exact same time the Red Sox have stopped. Alex Cora’s team was making its own run at the Blue Jays, as hot as the Blue Jays have been for a while. Only now they’ve been passed by the Yankees. They did tie the Orioles in the bottom of the 9th on Tuesday when Nathaniel Lowe, someone they just picked up from the Nationals, hit a two-run homer. After that? They loaded the bases one more time before Trevor Story grounded into a fielder’s choice.
Just like that, the Sox were tied with the Mariners for one of the last two wild card spots in the American League, and just two games in the loss column ahead of the Royals and the Guardians, with the sprint that is the rest of the regular season laid out in front of everybody.
Bad time for the Sox to go into slump, especially looking at four at the Stadium against the Yankees. Excellent time for the Yankees to start looking like the team they were into June, even with the schedule over just the past 10 days — Twins, Cardinals, Rays — having turned out to be this much of a blessing.
When the Yankees are hitting home runs, you know how it goes around here, people have them halfway to the Canyon of Heroes. But there are still issues, starting with the condition of Aaron Judge’s right elbow. You wonder just how much outfield Stanton can play as he sometimes moves around out there as if underwater. And it is starting to be more than a mild concern that their $218 million ace, Max Fried, hasn’t much looked like an ace for quite some time.
Still: They are hot. The Red Sox are not. The Yankees looked like they were rolling the last time the two teams met. Then they weren’t. They’ve gathered themselves lately against three losing teams in a row. Now here come the Red Sox. If they’re going to make a real statement, this weekend would be a good time to do it. It’s right in front of them. Right?
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