Analysis of the Boston Red Sox vs New York Yankees series

Final Red Sox/Yankees Thoughts

My big takeaway from this series is that these teams are incredibly evenly matched. Each of these games went down to the wire, and the Red Sox could have won all three had some more breaks bounced their way. The next sixteen games between these two teams are going to be a lot of fun.

I was also encouraged by the way the Red Sox hit the Yankees starters. Combined, Gerrit Cole, Luis Severino and Jordan Montgomery went just 9.1 innings and allowed eight runners. There is nobody in the Yankees rotation who the Red Sox fear, and that could prove critical moving forward.

If there’s one thing that concerns me, however, it’s how easily the Yankees relievers carved up the Red Sox lineup. Lucas Luetge, Chad Green, Jonathan Loiasaga and Aroldis Chapman combined to pitch 8.1 scoreless innings this series, allowing just one hit and striking out eight. Games one and two in particular showed New York’s game plan against Boston: Keep the game close early, feast off the Red Sox’s tiring starter, and bring in the big boys to close the game out.

There’s not much to be learned about the Yankees offense. Everything that happened in this series was expected: Stanton owns the Red Sox, Rizzo is a perfect fit in the Yankees lineup and Yankee Stadium, Judge has turned into a complete hitter, and Gallo is a strikeout machine. If there’s one thing that was proven in this series, it’s that the Red Sox need to be able to retire Kiner-Falefa and Higashioka to prevent the top of the order from coming up with runners on base.

Finally, I want to give credit to the Red Sox bullpen, who allowed just one run in 15 innings. I was critical of the bullpen all offseason long, and while I still believe they should have added a true closer, this series was a good start towards shutting me up.

Overall, I’m content with the result of the series. Obviously I would have preferred that the Red Sox have won the series, but they were competitive in all three games in a tough environment, and the win in the last game salvaged some momentum headed into their three-game series in Detroit.