Start spreading the boos: Sox rub it in
Nine minutes after midnight in The Bronx, as the tubs of empty champagne bottles were being wheeled out of the visitors’ clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, a familiar voice began serenading the room.
It wasn’t the first time Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” had come on to the Red Sox’ celebration playlist. They just might have played it all the way back to Boston.
After Aaron Judge played the song on a speaker as he walked by the home clubhouse at Fenway Park on Saturday night, going back to New York with the ALDS tied 1-1, the Red Sox made sure that version never played again at Yankee Stadium.
Instead, it was reserved for the background music as the Red Sox partied following a 4-3 win over the Yankees in Game 4 of the ALDS.
“I would say it does feel good to line up against these guys, the guys we were competing against all year long, and to be able to put them out of the playoffs like this, it feels pretty good,” said closer Craig Kimbrel, who raised the collective blood pressure across New England before escaping the ninth inning with the save.
Both teams had downplayed Judge playing the song on Saturday night, but the Red Sox’s song choice Tuesday suggested otherwise.
“I don’t know if they took it personal, but it’s just, I don’t know, we played “Dirty Water” at Yankee Stadium, and [if] they would have clinched in Fenway, they would have played “Dirty Water” in their clubhouse,” manager Alex Cora said.
It was less than three weeks ago that the Red Sox beat the Yankees 11-6 in The Bronx to clinch their third straight AL East title and popped champagne for their postgame celebration.
The scene had even more meaning on Tuesday. After falling out of the playoffs in two straight ALDS, the Red Sox are going to their first ALCS since winning it all in 2013.
“It’s amazing to be able to get that monkey off our back,” Mookie Betts said.
Red Sox owner John Henry said he thought when the Red Sox left Fenway Park with the series tied 1-1, the feeling among the media was that they were down 2-0 — a perceived slight that the Red Sox fed off of despite winning a franchise-record 108 games during the regular season.
“We’ve been at the top. From top to bottom, we’re as good as it gets,” said Chris Sale, who came on in relief to pitch a 1-2-3 eighth inning. “Anybody outside of this clubhouse can say whatever they want. We know who we are and we know what we can do.”