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NEW YORK – Inside the Yankee Stadium, Brock Holt was having trouble answering a question. Days before, at Fenway Park, Yankees Aaron slugger Judge had walked by Boston's blues club Frank Sinatra's "New York, New York." Now, the Sox were playing the song in New York's house for the second, or third, or maybe even fourth time and Holt could not focus.
"Good, good song," said the utility player who hit the cycle last night. He lost his train of thought and grinned. "We have been waiting to play this one. I can not even focus right now. Just listen to it. We saw [Judge] play the music and we are like, 'Okay, when we wink in New York we'll be blaring it when we're popping champagne.' "
The wafts of a clubhouse in the city of Boston. Lager lay strewn about the floor. Players' held bottles of Chandon and they sloshed through the puddles of alcohol that had pooled on the tarp covering the carpet and blanketing the walls. Shirts, pants, red socks and sandals were soaked in victory and alcohol.
Boston made relatively quick work of New York in the ALDS. After battling it out all season, after each team won over 100 games, after J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton launched baseballs into orbit, the Yankees lost the war. Boston started the series with a win, then New York took the second game at Fenway. Two days later, the Sox handed the Yankees their biggest postseason loss in Game 3 and finished the job one day later.
It was easy to get caught in the romance of a Yankees-Red Sox series. After all, this was their first October of the legendary fall of 2004, when Boston beat New York and went on to win the team's first World Series in eight decades. The 2018 season seemed like the beginning of the rivalry's next chapter, when both teams would be completely free for the first time ever.
At the conclusion of the season, it was clear they were not. There's nowhere to hide in October. Sure, Boston has major bullpen issues-Game 3 made that clear-and-starting pitcher David Price really needs to learn how to throw a ball into the strike zone. But the team was able to do what they've done done all season; it scored runs.
The Yankees were not. Yes, the Sox's first-year manager Alex Cora had a much better strategy than the Yankees rookie manager Aaron Boone. And sure, Boone has been rushed across the board for leaving Luis Severino on the mound as long as he did in Game 3. And yeah, Boone should have replaced Severino with a reliever of his job. in train starter-and-not-great-pitcher Lance Lynn to clean up the mess. And fine, Boone was once again too conservative with his bullpen in Game 4, allowing the Sox an early lead.
But his team just did not show up. You can not score four runs in 18 innings of baseball and except to win the divisional series.
The truth of the matter is that the Yankees got outplayed. It was not until the ninth inning of Game 4 that we got a glimpse of the tense, nail-biting, where's-the-Xanax baseball many fans both hoped and feared these games would be. For one inning, everyone-whether you bleed red or pinstripes-was terrified, as Red Sox reliever Craig Kimbrel loaded the bases with Gary Sanchez up at bat. Sanchez crushed one to the left field, and time stopped.
Even for the players.
"When Gary hit the ball, everyone in the dugout held their breath," said Sox pitcher Nate Eovaldi. "It felt like the ball hung up in the air forever."
It did not. It just missed the stands and turned into a sacrifice fly. Then Gleyber Torres hit a grounder to third. Eduardo Nunez made quick work of Steve Pearce at first, who made an incredible grab for the final out of the night. The Yankees challenged, the call was not reversed, and the Red Sox flowed out of the dugout, onto the field and into a giant group hug. They celebrated in enemy territory.
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "" We're known we were good year, "Holt said." We've known that they're were good the whole year. We know they're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. I feel like baseball's better when the Yankees and the Red Sox are battling it out. That's probably what's going to happen for years to come. "" Data-reactid = "34"> "We've known we were good," "Holt said." We've known that they're were good the whole year. We know they're not going anywhere. We're not going anywhere. I feel like baseball's better when the Yankees and the Red Sox are battling it out. That's probably what's going to happen for years to come. "
Hopefully it will be. The Yankees have too much talent not to figure out how to harness it. Part of that's on his way to manage his young team. No one in Boston is under the illusion that this season was easy, or that New York is not once again becoming closer to becoming a rival. But the Red Sox are still better, they have been on average for a decade and a half now.
<p class = "canvas-atom-canvas-text Mb (1.0em) Mb (0) – sm Mt (0.8em) – sm" type = "text" content = "Perhaps the Yankees can come back next year and claim the thing's for sure: It's highly unlikely the Yankees will forget that the Red Sox came into Their house and played Their song in Their basement. And what about the Yankees? the Red Sox came into Their house and played Their song in Their basement. And that's going to make the next few years a whole lot of fun.
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