Another meaningless Yankees-Red Sox series arrives

Remember when the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry was something to look forward to and/or dread each season? ESNY and Pepperidge Farm sure do.

It’s April 21, barely a month into the young 2026 MLB season. The Yankees, despite a recent rough stretch, sit atop the AL East following a weekend sweep of the Kansas City Royals. Aaron Judge still has nine home runs despite batting a meager .232 thus far and Ben Rice is still a hard contact, power-hitting machine.

The Red Sox? Not so much. Boston sits last in the division and four games behind the Bronx Bombers. They’re a young lineup with little veteran leadership. The pitching staff has done a near-180, with ace Gerrit Crochet leading the majors in earned runs allowed after leading in strikeouts last season. Boston’s big lefty is 2-3 with an awful 7.88 ERA through five starts, and doesn’t look too encouraging under the hood either.

What happened? Playing the Red Sox at any point in the season used to give Yankees fans agita worse than your dad at Thanksgiving dinner. Every game somehow felt like Game 7. One loss meant a catastrophe. At times, home runs from the 1-2 power punch of David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez seemed automatic. All Yankees fans could do was pray for the Curse of the Bambino to kick in, and then they hoped for dumb luck post-2004.

And yet, here we are ahead of the first Yanks-Sawx series of the year, and nothing is on the line. At all. Sure, maybe losing this series hurts the Yankees in the division race down the line, but is anyone really thinking about that this early? The most juice is probably reserved for New York sports betting.

Lucky for the Red Sox, Tuesday’s game is theirs to lose. Future high-leverage reliever Luis Gil makes his third start of the season and though he owns an 0.99 career ERA against Boston, he still hasn’t returned to his Rookie of the Year form. His fastball velocity is still down overall, and his whiff rate is in the 48th percentile compared to the 76th back in 2024.

But even then, the Red Sox are still struggling to hit fastballs across the board. Star prospect Roman Anthony is hitting .302 against them this season, albeit with no home runs. Willson Contreras bats .311 against the heater, but is an .074 career hitter against the Yankees.

Meanwhile, New York has the multitalented Max Fried slated to start on Wednesday, and the dominant Cam Schlittler in Thursday’s finale. And everyone still remembers the young righty mowing down Red Sox hitters in last year’s deciding Wild Card game.

Except maybe that’s just it. Last year’s AL Wild Card matchup between Boston was never that close to begin with. And keep in mind, Boston won the season series 9-4!

It’s really just a manifestation of how much the Yankees’ offense underachieved last year. Even as they matched their AL Pennant-clinching record from 2024. Too many bad losses to division rivals, especially Boston and Toronto, kept them in second place. The Red Sox still finished five games behind with a middling offense and a pitching staff that overachieved.

New York, on the other hand, still finished with the best wRC+ in baseball at 119. Boston’s sat at 103, tied with the Tigers for 11th.

And of course, because it’s a meaningless series in April, at least one game will be a nail-biter. Because it’s Yankees-Red Sox! Alex Cora and his guys always play a little harder when New York comes to town. Thursday’s boos for Schlittler, who attended Northeastern and grew up in nearby Walpole, will be deafening.

But we all know it. This Boston Red Sox team isn’t anything special. Trevor Story ranks fourth in the American League with 17 RBI, but only has a wRC+ of 43 thanks to batting .196 with only two home runs. Crochet has a 10.50 ERA since pitching six scoreless innings on Opening Day.

The Yankees, though? The offense hasn’t fully clicked yet, still ranks fifth in baseball and second in the AL with a 110 wRC+, and the pitching is still fairly strong. There’s nothing to suggest New York doesn’t handily take the series.

Then again, it’s Yankees-Red Sox. And anything can happen, even in games that mean everything and nothing.