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It’s impossible to approach a game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park without thinking about the heroism of Bucky Dent in a tie-breaking game in 1978. Winning in Game 163 regular season catapulted the Yankees to the playoffs and a World Series title. This heightened the desperation among Red Sox fans to the point that Dent earned himself an unprintable nickname all over New England.
In interviews with Dent and Ron Guidry, the Yankees’ starting pitcher in that 1978 game, Gary Phillips got some tips on how to win a game like this.
When asked how the Yankees could overtake the Boston Red Sox in a wildcard game that could extend or end a season that has seen countless ups and downs, Bucky Dent offered a tongue-in-cheek advice: “Use Mickey Rivers’ bat. “
This movement worked for Dent 43 years ago; who can say that would not be the case for a Yankee on Tuesday night?
JD Martinez, the Boston Red Sox’s most decorated slugger, is not in the team’s wildcard roster and, therefore, will not be in Tuesday night’s game. Martinez suffered a bizarre injury in the sixth inning of Sunday’s regular season finals against Washington, slipping when he entered second base as he rushed to his position.
Because the Red Sox, an American League team, played in a National League park, the home of the Nationals, Martinez was playing on the outfield instead of his traditional designated hitter position.
“JD has been walking on this bag for 10 years,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said on Tuesday afternoon. “It turns out he slipped.
Martinez, 34 – World Series winner with the Red Sox in 2018, three-time Silver Slugger and four-time All Star, including this season – had rebounded from a tough 2020 season to reach 0.286 with 28 homers and 99 RBIs. He trailed only third baseman Rafael Devers, 24, in percentage based plus strokes and runs RBI on the Red Sox this season.
To take into account the absence of Martinez, the Red Sox have changed their roster. Kyle Schwarber is the designated hitter, Bobby Dalbec is the first baseman and the outfield will be Enrique Hernandez, Hunter Renfroe and Alex Verdugo.
In the realm of omens, this one is almost too real to believe. On Monday night, the Massachusetts State Lottery offered a game with the winning numbers 1-9-7-8. Surprisingly, there were only 18 tickets with these exact numbers.
We know when the American League wildcard game between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox is expected to begin. The open question, when it comes to teams known for games that drag into the early hours, is when that ends. The make or die game comes after a crazy final day of the regular season in which there was a very real possibility of a four-for-two playoff tie. That the Yankees and Red Sox both won their games and landed in the playoffs, with heroic exploits in the Finals, only showed itself.
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Who: Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox
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What: The American League joker game
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Site: Fenway Park, Boston
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Challenges : A spot in a league division series against the Tampa Bay Rays (and bragging rights of a fierce rival)
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Start time: 8:08 p.m. EST
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End time : Ultimately
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TV: ESPN
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Diffusion: Various services such as Sling, Hulu Live, and FuboTV will broadcast the ESPN stream, which is also available through WatchESPN and the ESPN app.
Tonight’s game will be a clash between Yankees ace Gerrit Cole and Boston Red Sox Nathan Eovaldi, who a few lifetimes ago was misrepresented as a future ace in the Bronx.
The Yankees are hoping their $ 324 million star Cole can become their man of choice when they need him most. However, there is no guarantee. He was a favorite for the Cy Young Award for much of the season and ended up going 16-8 with a 3.23 ERA and 243 strikeouts. But a big dip down the stretch, and its connection to baseball’s enforcement of its sticky substance policy, will most likely give the award to Robbie Ray of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Eovaldi, on the other hand, has come a long way from when he didn’t quite live up to expectations with the Yankees in 2015 and 2016. He has struggled with some injuries and spent some time. time as a reliever, and this year he has become an ace. of sorts for Boston, going 11-9 with a 3.75 ERA and 195 strikeouts. At least one metric indicates that he was better than it looked: his score as an independent field pitcher, which is an estimate of a pitcher’s ERA in events for which he was solely responsible, was of 2.79 at the top of the American League – one spot ahead of Cole and seven spots ahead of Ray.
Boston will have to hope, however, that Eovaldi has a short memory: in his last start against the Yankees on September 24, he was tattooed seven runs in two innings and two-thirds. The winning pitcher of this game? Gerrit Cole.
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