Gleyber Torres takes off as the Red Sox defeats the Yankees 6-2 to advance to the ALDS. (0:29).
BOSTON -- Xander Bogarts and Kyle Schwarber hit home against Gerrit Cole of the Yankees, while Nathan Eovaldi recorded a shutout in the sixth inning to help Boston beat New York 6-2 in the AL Wild Card Game.
Bogaerts made an excellent relay to throw out Aaron Judge at plate while the game was still close. This sent the Red Sox into a AL Division Series against Tampa Bay Rays. The best-of-five matchup begins Thursday night in St. Petersburg.
Boston defeated New York in the playoffs with Cole leading the charge in the third inning, thanks to Bucky Dent and Aaron Boone. The Yankees are the most successful majors team with 27 World Series titles, but they haven't won it all since 2009.
One year after baseball moved its postseason into neutral-site bubbles to combat the pandemic, a sold out crowd of 38.324 -- the largest of the year -- gathered at Fenway Park to renew one of the most passionate rivalries in the sport. There were enough Yankee fans to fuel a frenetic back-and-forth with insulting chants.
This was the fifth playoff matchup of the longtime foes with Boston winning a 3-2 victory. This doesn't include the 1978 AL East tiebreaker, which technically is regular season Game No. 163 -- The Yankees won this tiebreaker thanks to Dent's homer above the Green Monster.
Boone, a former infielder, is now the Yankees manager. He added to the pain with his 11th-inning walk off homer in Game 7 in the 2003 AL Championship Series.
Since then, the Red Sox have never lost to them.
The next year, they got their revenge after winning the ALCS's first three games to eliminate the Yankees. They then won their first World Series title for 86 years. They won three more Series: in 2007, 2013, and 2018, when they eliminated the Yankees in divisional round.
Any pain that remained was quickly forgotten when the game began in the first inning.
Bogaerts, unlike Dent, who couldn't clear the left-field wall, which is just 310ft from home plate, drilled a 427ft line drive straightaway to center. Bogaerts also interrupted his home run streak, unlike Carlton Fisk who tried to wrangle the ball in Game 6 of 1975 World Series. Bogaerts did this to flex for Red Sox's dugout.
Cole was pulled for allowing Schwarber's solo shot in the third inning and putting two more men on base with no outs. He was charged with three runs, four hits, two walks and striking out three over two innings.
Eovaldi allowed only two hits in five innings, before Schwarber's teammate and 2016 Cubs champion teammate gave up a solo homer to Anthony Rizzo. This sparked the first enthusiastic cheers from Yankees fans.
Ryan Brasier relieved Judge after Judge's infield single and gave Giancarlo Stanton a wall single. Judge was thrown out at home, 8-6-2, by Phil Nevin, third base coach. Judge is the team that had 43 outfield assists in the season. (The Yankees had 22 home runs this season, tied for second in baseball.
Eovaldi gave up one run on four hits over 5 1/3 innings and struck out eight. Boston took a 6-1 lead when Alex Verdugo scored a run and stole one more.
Stanton was the first to hit high off the wall, and he scored a solo homer in ninth.
In the final 10 days of the season the teams switched places twice. The Yankees' three-game sweep at Boston Sept. 24-26 moved them into the first wild card spot. Major League Baseball went through all the tiebreaker scenarios and the Yankees were asked to decide whether they wanted to play in Toronto or Boston to end a four-way tie.
They chose Boston.
The tiebreakers were not necessary because both teams finished ahead Toronto and Seattle with identical records 92-70. Boston won home-field due to a 10-9 head–to-head record. Word of the Yankees' decision made its way to the Red Sox clubhouse.
"We knew about it. "We don't talk about it, because we had business to take care," Red Sox center fielder Kik Sanchez said before the game. "They wanted us, and they got us now. So win or go home. That's all.
