The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox are equal leaders in the American League East and currently seem to be the best teams in baseball. Now that two series have been played, the first insights into the teams’ performance status can be gained. An inventory.
The Yankees won the first two games of the recently finished series against the Red Sox, Boston’s third clash. Thus, it is now 3-3 in the season series after six matches. In the American League East, therefore, both teams are on a par with 26-11.
Of course, it is only the beginning of May, which experience has shown is not an ideal moment to finally evaluate the full performance of the major league teams. But the signs seem clear: both teams are extremely competitive and probably the best teams in the league – the MLB, not only the American League!
The 26-11 record is the best in baseball, with a gap of at least two and a half games from the next best team. The only troop that, according to known metrics, currently has good arguments to penetrate this phalanx are the Houston Astros (24-15), because their run difference of +82 is by far the best of the MLB. And runs are not insignificant if you want to evaluate the quality of a team or player. The Yankees (+65) and Red Sox (+64) are second and third. After that, there’s a bigger gap to the rest of the league.
But are both teams really equally good? If you only look at the last series, you could at least get the impression. There were eleven leadership changes, lots of bullpen action and a total of 29 runs in the three games, which, by the way, lasted 10 hours and 32 minutes – or on average about three and a half hours. It is also remarkable that there was no game with more than three runs difference. Of the first six between the two teams this season, only the first (14-1 Boston) was finished farther apart.
Meanwhile, the hotter team of the two are certainly the Yankees. Not only did they win the latest series, they also won 17 of their last 19 games. And thus wiped out a backlog of 7 ½ games in mid-April. However, this impressive phase did not come against anyone: The Yankees had to overcome the Angels (3-0) and Astros (3-1) away and the Indians (3-0) in the Bronx, among others.
So far this season, the Yankees have played 21 matches against teams with a positive record as of Thursday (10 May) – the Indians, AL West’s number 1, are not even there at 18-18 – and have a record of 14-7 against them, the Red Sox have only played 12 such matches, their record is 8-4.
Now you can see what you want from that, but the fact is the Yankees had a tougher path to their 26 victories in 37 games than Boston.
Another approach that may distinguish these two teams is the form of players shown so far.
The Red Sox seem to have found their top form early on. The potential MVP Mookie Betts (13 HR, 1,244 OPS), for example, leads the MLB in terms of home runs, runs, average strokes and OPS. Newcomer J.D. Martinez (9 HR, 29 RBI) can be found in the top 10 at the RBI despite a shortened jumping training and none really falls off, as Hanley Ramirez, who weakened last year, proved with his home run in the game on Thursday.
The Yankees, on the other hand, had a few cliffs to circumnavigate. Star newcomer Giancarlo Stanton didn’t really make it all of April and just recently blossomed, while even big names like Gary Sanchez or Brett Gardner still have a lot of room to move up.
Only the AL Player of the Month in April, Didi Gregorius (10 HR, 31 RBI), and superstar Aaron Judge (9 HR, 28 RBI, 1,018 OPS) have performed consistently well so far. From the center field, however, there is still no production and the second base is no longer a problem zone until Rookie Gleyber Torres’ (.344 AVG) arrived. First Base, however, will probably remain a question mark at least until Greg Bird returns.
All the more impressive seems the current table constellation from the Bronx Bombers’ point of view. Quite a few experts suggest that the Yankees have not yet reached their performance limits, and the Red Sox are already operating at their limits.
Pitching, on the other hand, is similar. For both teams, especially among the relief pitchers, there were sometimes serious deficits in the important roles. The Yankees destroyed Joe Kelly, while the Sox exploited the weaknesses of people like Chad Green or David Robertson. Boston, on the other hand, seems – as expected – to be ahead of the starting rotations.
For the moment, the two are on an equal footing and this is pouring oil into the now rekindled fire of a rivalry that has been dormant for a few years. But at the latest since the epic Brawl in the first series in April, after Kelly had dropped Tyler Austin and heated the spirits, she has awakened again.
Perhaps the biggest rivalry in American sports is fun again. Both teams are at their peak at the same time and could dominate the whole season. This has not been the case between these two teams since 2003/2004.
At that time, they met twice in a row in the American League Championship Series. In 2003, it was today’s Yankees manager Aaron Boone who beat the dramatic walk-off Homun in Game 7. In 2004, the Red Sox shot the series historically after trailing 0-3 and then won their first World Series in 86 years.
“I had forgotten how much fun these series were,” Boone said recently about the rivalry with Boston, which he can now relive up close.
But long before 2003, a rivalry developed between the two East Coast rivals for eternity. It all started in 1916, when the Red Sox, in dire financial straits, sold their superstar Babe Ruth to New York for $125,000.
A transaction that went down in history as “Curse of the Bambino”. The Bambino, as Ruth was called, became probably the greatest power hitter the world had ever seen and played a huge part in the first of many Yankee dynasties. The first Yankee Stadium was built with the short right field on the left side to get even more home runs out of it. “The House that Ruth Built” has been called ever since.
The Red Sox, on the other hand, suffered from the curse for years and had to expect redemption until 2004. Another dramatic experience, of course, was the 1978 playoff play-off play-off deciding Bucky Dent for New York with a dramatic home run. The Red Sox went away empty-handed again, the Yankees won the first of two World Series titles in a row.
It should also be mentioned that the Yankees were instrumental in denying Ted Williams, probably the greatest pure hitter of all time, a championship title. For it was no coincidence that his heyday – apart from his involuntary time-out during the Second World War, during which he himself was in action – fell into one of the greatest Yankee dynasties between the 1940s and 1950s.
Whether 2018 will be as dramatic as it was then is not yet certain. For the sport one may at least hope for it. But one thing is already certain: the biggest rivalry in sport is back.
This article was published without previous view by the Major League Baseball.