Yanks End Season on High, Ready for BoSox

Give credit to the New York Yankees, they didn't give up on their pursuit of the A.L. East crown.

All weekend the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays were tied atop the division, waiting for the other to blink, but neither team did. The Jays swept the Tampa Bay Rays up in Toronto, while the Yankees took care of the Orioles in the Bronx.

The Jays won the division, but the Yankees enter the playoffs with a head of steam, having won eight in a row, and 25 of their final 33 ball games. That's pretty impressive.

Ben Rice who has been on fire himself this month, continued to rake, cracking two homers on Sunday, including the game winner as the Yankees slid past the Orioles 3-2.

Now the attention turns to the Boston Red Sox on Tuesday. The Red Sox won the season series against the Yankees, but are not as hot as they were when these two teams last met in the Bronx back in late August.

Both the Yankees and Sox have the opener to the wild card series lined up exactly as they want with Max Fried taking on Garret Crochet. The Red Sox have won all four of Crochet's starts against the Yankees this season. The last time he faced them in New York, Crochet dominated the Yankees over seven innings of five hit ball.

As for Fried, he's pitched well against Boston, but the Yankees are 1-2 in his three starts against them. His last outing against the Red Sox, Fired got the win, holding Boston to two runs over 5.1 innings in a 5-3 victory.

Of course these two teams know each very well in the postseason. The last two the Yankees and Sox met in this round was back in 2021 when the Wild Card was only one game playoff. Boston won that game up at Fenway to knock the Yankees out. Now it's a three game series.

This could be and should be epic.

And if this series needs any more hype, the winner of this series faces Toronto in the ALDS.

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