Longtime rivals Red Sox, Yankees, back at it in AL wild card

BOSTON (AP) » Oh, it’s on.

A day before he is scheduled to face the Red Sox in the AL wild-card game, New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole dropped the name that dare not be spoken within the confines of Fenway Park — at least not since the last one-game playoff between the longtime rivals was decided by a light-hitting shortstop popping the go-ahead homer over the Green Monster.

“Bucky Dent, right?” Cole said when asked what he knew about the history between the teams. “You’re dreaming about putting yourself in that position, and coming through for your team. And here we are.”

Forty-three years after Dent’s homer helped the Yankees beat Boston to break a tie for the AL East title, the teams meet again for one game, with the winner this time advancing to face the Tampa Bay Rays in an AL Division Series.

Cole (16-8) faces Nathan Eovaldi (11-9) in Boston, where Dent homered, where ‘Tek shoved A-Rod, where Roger returned, where Pedro pushed Zimmer and where Dave Roberts stole second to make everyone all-but forget about everything that happened up until then.

“There’s a buzz here,” said New York manager Aaron Boone, himself a Boston beater with an 11thinning, walk-off home run in Game 7 of the 2003 AL Championship Series at Yankee Stadium.

“It matters here. It’s fun to compete in games here. It’s tough to compete in games here,” Boone said. “Yeah, I think there will be some tension, electricity. Everything you could hope for for a winner-takeall game in the playoffs and two outstanding franchises and teams.”

It will be the fifth time the teams have met in the playoffs — the 1978 tiebreaker counted as part of the regular season — with each club winning twice. In postseason games, New York leads 12-11, but Boston has won seven of the last eight.

Twice series have come down to a win-or-go-home seventh game, in the 2003 and ‘04 ALCS. Each team has won one of them.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who arrived in Boston as a player in 2005, right after the most recent heyday of the rivalry, said back then it was fueled by players such as David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada.

“It was more about the characters, the players, bigger-than-life,” he said. “It was like, ‘Wow, these guys are unbelievable.’

“They used to fight, too, back in the day, so I think that gave it a little bit more for the fan base,” Cora said. “We have great players ... two teams are playing for the same thing. Throughout the season, it’s been a rollercoaster ride.”