The Boston Red Sox have the New York Yankees’ number this year.
The Red Sox beat their archrivals again on Friday night, eeking out a 1-0 victory at Yankee Stadium. It was Boston’s seventh straight win against the Yankees, officially clinching the season series.
With both teams vying for the top wild card spot in the American League (the Red Sox now lead by half a game), that could make a big difference in October. If Boston and New York finish tied for a playoff spot, the Red Sox win the tiebreaker and would get home-field advantage in a potential wild card round between the two.
But that’s still over a month away. In the meantime, Boston keeps finding ways to beat the Yankees.
In Thursday’s 6-3 win, the Red Sox managed to prevail despite going 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position and leaving 14 men on base. It helped that New York was sloppy in the field, committing four errors.
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On Friday, both offenses fell quiet as Brayan Bello and Max Fried engaged in an old-fashioned pitching duel. Fried went six scoreless while Bello went seven, keeping the bats in check.
Boston once again struggled in key situations, going 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position. That one hit was the difference, however, as the Red Sox finally broke through in the top of the seventh on back-to-back doubles from Nathaniel Lowe and Connor Wong.
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Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman took it from there, retiring all six batters they faced (four via strikeout) to nail down Boston’s third 1-0 victory of the season.
While the Red Sox have already clinched the season series, they still need to win one more game this weekend to win the current series. Boston will try to do that behind AL Cy Young candidate Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.43 ERA), who allowed five runs in six innings during his first career start at Yankee Stadium back in June.
