The rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees is one of the longest-running in MLB. Their first meeting came back in 1901, but the rivalry didn’t really take off until the Yankees signed baseball legend Babe Ruth from the Red Sox.
This led to the superstition of the curse of the bambino, where the Red Sox wouldn’t win a world series for 86 years. Though that curse ended in 2004, the rivalry still runs deep between these two franchises. And this past weekend, the two teams met once more in a four-game series at the halfway stage of the current MLB season.
Here’s a quick recap of how the latest series between the two went down:
Red Sox vs Yankees – Game 1
Even when both teams are in bad form, the rivalry between these two teams never fails to disappoint. They are always hotly contested games which are either incredibly close or result in one team absolutely whitewashing the other. And this series was no different.
In the first game which finished 6-5 to the Yankees, they took an early 5-run lead in the third innings, with the first two closed out as stalemates, neither side getting any runs on the scoreboard. The Red Sox did reply to the Yankees’ five runs with two of their own but fell further behind in the fifth innings when the Yankees secured another run.
Trying their best to claw back the deficit, the Red Sox were only able to get three more runs in the entire game, gifting the Yankees a first win in the 4-game series.
Red Sox vs Yankees – Game 2
The second game of the series saw the Yankees take their momentum from the win in Game 1 and absolutely dominate this tie, registering runs in all but two innings.
DJ LeMahieu, Matt Carpenter, Josh Donaldson, Aaron Hicks and Jose Trevino all came away with two runs each in this game that the Yankees further cemented their place as the top team in the American League (AL) East, and as favourites for the World Series this year.
The Red Sox were only able to score five runs in return, leaving the score at the end of the bottom of the ninth at 12-5 in favour of the team from the Empire State.
Red Sox vs Yankees – Game 3
On the back of two defeats, the Red Sox knew that they would have to pull out all the stops against the Yankees, a team who are now with 61 wins this season, recording just 25 losses. But they managed just that, in another closely fought contest.
The Red Sox actually took the lead in this game, scoring a run in the second innings, before the Yankees levelled up in the fifth. The Yankees then took the lead in the sixth, scoring two more runs with the Red Sox only managing to score a single run. But in the bottom of the eighth, they secured one more run to force the game into tenth innings overtime.
The Yankees would start batting, hitting for two runs to give the Red Sox a tough task to come out on top, but with a response of three runs thanks to some poor fielding from the Yankees, the team from Boston pulled off what looked like the impossible. The Yankees will be kicking themselves as well, because they had opportunities to kill off the game in overtime, but it seemed to be that every Yankees player had butter on their fingers as the ball kept slipping through their grasps.
Red Sox vs Yankees – Game 4
After the close defeat in the previous game, the Yankees came out fired up, taking an early two-run lead in the first innings. They then stretched this to four runs in the second, before the Red Sox came back with two of their own.
The Yankees then kept up the pressure in the third, scoring another two runs for the third consecutive innings, with just a single run in return. But from here, the Yankees collapsed. They were unable to put any more points on the scoreboard, and the Red Sox took the momentum from the previous game to score an additional eight runs to win the game 11-6, with Trevor Story managing three runs all by himself.
Overall rundown
Game 4 left the series tied at two games a piece, a set of results that the Red Sox will have been happier with than their New York opponents, who are looking to break all the records this season, having dominated so heavily in the first half. However, it will have done little to dent their hopes of making the playoffs being so far ahead in the AL East. But it will give hope to teams they may face in the postseason fixtures that this team who have looked unbeatable at times this season, can be beaten and are prone to making mistakes under pressure.
Do you think the Yankees will go all the way and win the World Series this season? Maybe you’re backing one of the underdogs instead? Let us know in the comments below how you think the 2022 MLB campaign will pan out.
To find more articles like this, check our Baseball page. This content was provided and written by WriteyWrite.com.
Could’ve done with a little more detail about key events in each game, but appreciate the quick recap and the included highlights as I missed games 2 and 3 due to work. Keep up the good work!