It’s been six years since Yanks, Sox met this late atop AL East
TORONTO — Across a sixmonth schedule, there are big league games that blend into baseball’s fabric before the first pitch is fired. Games that aren’t highly anticipated before being played and forgotten by the fifth inning.
That won’t be the case starting Friday night at Yankee Stadium, when the best rivalry in sports resumes in a three-game series between the AL East-leading Red Sox and the Yankees, who are 4 ½ games out after a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on Thursday night when Boston was idle.
It’s the first time since Sept. 1, 2011, the blood rivals are playing each other this late in the season while holding the two top spots in the AL East. That year, the Red Sox were in first place at 83-53 and the Yankees (82-53) were a half-length back. The Yankees beat the Red Sox 4-2 and went on to win the AL East. They met again on Sept. 24-25, but the Yankees already had clinched the title
With 49 games remaining for the Yankees and 48 for the Red Sox, the remaining 10 games between the teams have a greater urgency than those played earlier in the season.
“I say all the time a game in April in May against the Red Sox or Rays or whoever you are fighting with is as important as games in August and September, so they all mean the same,’’ Brett Gardner said before adding the “but.”
“But especially when you are behind which we are and we have some ground to make up and we don’t need to waste any more time,’’ Gardner said. “We don’t need to wait till the end of September. It will be a very important series at home and it will be exciting. I am sure our fans are excited about it and it should be a lot of fun.’’
After Sept. 3, the Yankees and Red Sox won’t meet, so that means the club trailing will require help — never a good spot to be in.
The last time the Red Sox and Yankees tangled was at Fenway Park immediately after the AllStar break (July 14-16) in four games, which they split. When the Yankees left New England’s living room, they trailed by 3 ½ games. By July 28, the Yankees were on top by a half-length and stayed there until Aug. 1.
“It’s really important. You have to stay within striking distance so when you have a chance to play them you make up ground,’’ Joe Girardi said of the upcoming three dates in The Bronx.
The Yankees are 6-3 against the Red Sox this season; 2-1 in The Bronx, where the visitors will start lefties Eduardo Rodriguez, Drew Pomeranz and Chris Sale.
Raised in Toms River, N.J., Todd Frazier grew up at the height of the rivalry when Aaron Boone’s homer off Tim Wake- field in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS carried the Yankees into the World Series. The following year, the Yankees flushed a 3-0 ALCS lead and the Red Sox won their first World Series title since 1918.
“A girlfriend of mine had a [high school] class dance and we are in the middle of dancing and they put a TV in the middle of the gym and it shows Pedro Martinez and Zim [Don Zimmer] going at it and the whole danced stopped and everybody went crazy,’’ said Frazier, who was a junior in high school in 2003. “There is a whole big history and I am going to be a part of it. That’s unbelievable because me and my dad and my brothers and my friends we always watched the games. Now to know I am going to be part of something like this is a blessing and an honor.’’