Thursday Oct. 7Th ALDS Game 1 RED SOX VS RAYS 7:05 Pre-Game 8:07 First Pitch
Friday Oct. 8th ALDS Game 2 RED SOX VS RAYS 6:00 Pre-Game 7:02 First Pitch
Sunday Oct. 10th ALDS Game 3 RED SOX VS RAYS 3:05 Pre-Game 4:07 First Pitch
BOSTON (AP) — Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber homered off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole to help the Boston Red Sox beat New York 6-2 in the AL wild-card game. Nathan Eovaldi took a shutout into the sixth inning for Boston. The Red Sox will play the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays in the best-of-five Division Series starting Thursday night in Florida. A year after baseball took its postseason into neutral site bubbles to protect against the pandemic, a sellout crowd of 38,324 filled Fenway Park to rekindle one of the sport’s most passionate rivalries. They saw Boston beat New York in the postseason for the third straight time.
BOSTON (AP) — Gerrit Cole and the New York Yankees took a winding route into the AL wild-card game, squeezing in on the final day of a tumultuous season. As their ace pitcher flopped on the Fenway Park mound, not even an appearance by Boston heartbreaker Bucky Dent could help them advance in October. Cole was chased in the third inning after serving up home runs to Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber, and the Yankees were eliminated early from the playoffs with a 6-2 loss to the rival Boston Red Sox. The Yankees now head into another intriguing offseason as they continue to try to piece together a roster capable of ending their 12-year World Series drought.
BOSTON (AP) — The Yankees brought a lucky charm to Fenway Park — a scrappy former shortstop meant as Boston kryptonite. Bucky Dent, whose famous home run off Mike Torrez sent New York past the rival Red Sox in the 1978 AL East tiebreaker, traveled from his home in Florida to attend Tuesday night’s AL wild-card game. Dent’s drive 43 years ago over the Green Monster swung the only other one-game, winner-take-all matchup between the teams. This time, the Yankees were counting on his presence alone to help them. His seat? Right behind home plate in view of any Red Sox pitcher on the mound. But in the end, Dent didn’t do the trick: New York was eliminated with a 6-2 loss.
BOSTON (AP) — Designated hitter J.D. Martinez was left off the Red Sox roster for their one-game wild-card playoff against the New York Yankees, two days after he twisted his ankle running out to the field in a rare defensive appearance. New York, meanwhile, had Gio Urshela starting at third base two days after he took a terrifying crash into the visiting dugout while catching a foul ball in a 1-0 win over Tampa Bay that clinched the Yankees a postseason berth. Martinez slipped on second base while taking his position between innings Sunday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Baseball’s postseason is returning to its pre-pandemic format a year after COVID-19 confined most of last October’s action to empty stadiums in neutral sites. Seeing and hearing fans is a welcome change for players who pushed through last year’s playoffs supplying their own energy on a stage normally powered by the buzz created by live audiences. If the end of this regular season is an indication, the ballparks will be packed this postseason.