The Red Sox and Yankees opened a three-game series in the Bronx this weekend, and the pitching was already mapped out for every game. Sonny Gray was set to start Friday at 7:05 p.m. against Ryan Weathers, Ranger Suárez was lined up for Saturday at 7:35 p.m. against Will Warren, and Connelly Early was scheduled to take the ball Sunday at 1:35 p.m. against Cam Schlittler.
That setup drew extra attention because Boston needed more than just a fresh series to reset its footing in one of baseball’s oldest rivalries. The Red Sox had been swept by the Yankees in late April, when they scored three total runs and allowed 12, and they were 2-8 in their last 10 games against New York. The two clubs have met 2,304 times in the regular season, but recent games have tilted hard toward the Yankees.
The Yankees entered this series without Aaron Judge, who had been sidelined for an extended period with a stress fracture of the first rib on his right side, yet their offense still looked built to punish mistakes. New York led the Majors with 89 home runs and ranked second in on-base-plus-slugging at.761 behind the Dodgers. That mattered because the middle of the lineup was still carrying weight, and Ben Rice was one of the names driving the conversation after hitting.300 with 17 home runs, 44 RBIs and a.638 slugging percentage.
Rice also had the third-best American League Most Valuable Player odds, and Aaron Boone said he was putting himself in with the class of the league’s best hitters. But the matchup was not simple for Boston. Rice was hitting just.111 against the Red Sox this season, though he had hit.231 against them last year and.261 the year before. He was also hitting.306 against lefties this season, and he was scheduled to face two left-handed pitchers in the series.
Boston’s recent history against New York makes the weekend harder to dismiss as a routine division set. The Red Sox also scored only six runs in three games during last season’s Wild Card matchup while allowing 11, and they had already dropped the late-April series in ugly fashion. Suárez was coming off two sub-par outings that pushed his ERA to 3.38, while Early, 5-3 with a 3.26 ERA, gave up four runs to the Orioles on Tuesday. Gray, meanwhile, entered at 6-1 with a 3.06 ERA.
For the Red Sox, the next answer comes one game at a time. They have three chances in the Bronx to change the tone of a rivalry that has repeatedly gone New York’s way, starting Friday night and continuing through Sunday afternoon.
