The AL East race has extended into the postseason. The 162-game regular season wasn’t enough to decide who gets to advance. Tonight, the Yankees and Red Sox open the best-of-five ALDS at Fenway Park. From a fan’s perspective, this will be the best and worst series ever. The highs and lows can be extreme.
Three times previously the Yankees and Red Sox have met in the postseason. The Yankees won the 1999 ALCS in five games and the 2003 ALCS in seven games. I reckon we’ll see a certain home run highlight from that series a few times these next few days. The 2004 ALCS was mysteriously canceled after Game Three. Still unexplained. In all seriousness, it’s been a very long time since these clubs met in October. New faces but the same rivalry.
Boston won the season series 10-9 with a +14 run differential. Weirdly, there were a lot of blowouts. Seven of those 19 games were decided by at least seven runs. Only four were decided by two or fewer runs. I feel like, right now, the Yankees have their strongest roster of the year. Guys are healthy and some midseason pickups have paid huge dividends. What happened from April through September isn’t all that predictive in a short postseason series when teams match up this evenly.
If you care about such things, ZiPS has the Yankees with a slightly higher probability of winning the ALDS than the Red Sox (52.4% vs. 47.6%). A coin flip series. I’m not sure any outcome in any number of games would surprise me. Here are tonight’s lineups:
New York Yankees
1. LF Andrew McCutchen
2. RF Aaron Judge
3. CF Aaron Hicks
4. DH Giancarlo Stanton
5. 1B Luke Voit
6. SS Didi Gregorius
7. 3B Miguel Andujar
8. C Gary Sanchez
9. 2B Gleyber Torres
LHP J.A. Happ
Boston Red Sox
1. RF Mookie Betts
2. LF Andrew Benintendi
3. 1B Steve Pearce
4. DH J.D. Martinez
5. SS Xander Bogaerts
6. 3B Eduardo Nunez
7. 2B Ian Kinsler
8. C Sandy Leon
9. CF Jackie Bradley Jr.
LHP Chris Sale
It is a crystal clear night in Boston and chilly. Postseason weather. Tonight’s game will begin at 7:32pm ET and you can watch on TBS and TBS.com. Enjoy the game, folks.
Rotation Update: As expected, Luis Severino will start Game Three and CC Sabathia will start Game Four (if necessary), Aaron Boone announced. Severino will be on normal rest in Game Three following his Wild Card Game start. Sabathia is available in relief tonight, probably in an emergency only.
Roster Notes: Tyler Wade, Luis Cessa, and Kyle Higashioka were all sent to Tampa to stay sharp in case they have to be added to the roster at some point. Sonny Gray is doing the same but is in New York. I believe Greg Bird and Ronald Torreyes are with the Yankees in Boston. Here’s the ALDS roster.