Yankees, Red Sox set for epic pennant race
Bob Nightengale: Talent level, high stakes ramp up MLB’s marquee rivalry
It was the summer of 1993, and Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel still remembers the stress, the nightly angst he and his family felt every day.
The feelings are back 25 years later. The difference is instead of being a young Braves fan growing up in Alabama, he’s a vital component in base- ball’s greatest playoff race in a quartercentury.
It’s Yankees-Red Sox, and the talent level and stakes involved might be the greatest this rivalry has known outside of their playoff meetings.
Amid baseball’s competitive imbalance, we also have a division race we can’t keep our eyes off, where one team has won more games before the All-Star break than anyone in baseball history, the other on pace to win 106 games.
The Red Sox are 68-30, and, even if they go .500 the rest of the way, are guaranteed of only their fourth 100-victory season. They are on pace to win 112 games, shattering the franchise record of 105 in 1912.
The Yankees are 62-33, their best record at the All-Star break in 20 years, and if they continue at this clip, their 106 victories will be their second most in a season since Roger Maris eclipsed Babe Ruth’s home run record in 1961.
All this drama leads to one team winning the American League East, with the Red Sox leading by 41⁄ games, and
2 the other having no guarantee of playing more than a single postseason game.
“You hear a majority of guys say they don’t pay attention to the race until later in the year,” Kimbrel says, “but with the situation you’re in, you’re looking at the scoreboard every night. You can’t help it. Every single day is important.
“I remember 1993, and when I played in Atlanta, you were reminded of it every time the Giants came to town, because they would put those highlights on the Jumbotron. You don’t forget something like that. You can’t.”
It was baseball’s last great race without a safety net. The Giants and Braves were tied on the final day of the season for the National League West lead. The Giants lost to the Dodgers that day; the Braves beat the Rockies. Atlanta (104
58) went to the playoffs. San Francisco
(103-59) stayed home.
“Can you imagine?” Kimbrel said. “You win 103 games and you’re not in the playoffs. You felt sorry for them because you never wanted to be that team.”
Major League Baseball made sure it would never happen again, adding a third division to each league in 1994, introducing a wild-card format, even adding a second wild-card team in 2012.
There hasn’t been a 100-win team since the ’93 Giants that failed to play in a best-of-five playoff series.
That could change this year.
The Red Sox and Yankees, who have outscored their opponents by a combined 294 runs, are virtually ensured of each being in the playoffs, with the Rays trailing by 18 games in the AL East and the Athletics down by eight games for the second wild-card spot.
The winner gets to rest and play a best-of-five series. The loser is relegated to a one-game playoff and likely facing one of two pitchers who have thrown a no-hitter this year: James Paxton of the Mariners or Sean Manaea of the Athletics.
“The goal is to win the division,” Mariners All-Star slugger Nelson Cruz said, “but if we have to play the wild-card game, we’ll take our chances. I don’t think anyone wants to play us in a onegame wild-card.”
Can you imagine the firestorm if the Yankees or Red Sox lose that wild-card game, robbing us of a potential Yankees-Red Sox playoff series?
You don’t think there would be a dramatic push to change baseball’s playoff format, turning the wild-card game into a best-of-three?
“Let me say this loud and clear,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred says, “nobody appreciates the Yankee-Red Sox rivalry more than I do in terms of how important it is to the game. But I would also suggest if it’s the Brewers and Reds winning 100 games, the uproar would be less than the Red Sox-Yankees one. So I don’t think you should get into redesigning your system based on the outcome of a particular year.”
While MLB officials and TV executives would be mortified to see the Yankees or Red Sox eliminated after one game, this is the intention of the second wild card. There was little deterrent in being a wild-card winner in the past, with 12 still reaching the World Series, winning six championships.
Now, you better win the division, or you’re left rolling the dice at the craps table, knowing that if you win the wildcard game, you lost the services of your ace until Game 3 of the division series.
“If the standings finished as they are today under the old system,” Manfred said, “the Yankees and Red Sox wouldn’t care who won the American League East. So I’m pretty good with how it looks.”
Pardon the Yankees and Red Sox for not sharing those cuddly feelings.
“You drive yourself crazy in July trying to keep track of that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said last weekend. “I’m aware they win every game.”
Well, maybe not every night, but certainly at a historic pace. The Red Sox opened the season going 17-2 and closed the first half winning 12 of their last 13.
“We’re not worried,” Yankees ace Luis Severino said. “We’re going to be in the playoffs. It’s just 41⁄ games back. We
2 play them 10 times the second half. We have to fight, but we will be in the playoffs.”
Yet the possibility of a one-and-out postseason is the fear of every Yankees and Red Sox fan.
“You try not to think about it too much,” Red Sox All-Star first baseman Mitch Moreland says. “I don’t know if it’s more fun or less fun the fact that we can’t shake them. But if nothing else, it does keep you focused.”
The schedule-makers can take a bow.
The Yankees and Red Sox play each other six times the last two weeks, beginning with a three-game series Sept. 18 at Yankee Stadium, and the final three games of the regular season at Fenway Park.
It could be an epic finish in this Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, with perhaps an encore awaiting in the postseason.
“This is what we signed up for, right?” Red Sox ace Chris Sale said. “Yankees-Red Sox. Bring it on.”