What did we learn about the Yankees and Red Sox this weekend? Not much. After alternating routs - two of which went to the Yanks - we know the Yanks and Sox will be jousting for the top-spot in the AL East until late September. We knew that before the weekend.
We know Luis Severino is unbeatable (8-0) at Yankee Stadium. We knew that before the weekend. The Red Sox could have taken six turns through the lineup against Severino Sunday night and it wouldn't have mattered. His stuff was that impossibly nasty.
We know David Price winces at the prospect of pitching against the Yankees, especially at Yankee Stadium. Since he joined Boston, Price is 2-6 with an 8.43 ERA in nine starts, allowing 13 homers in 47 innings. Price is a grotesque 0-5 with a 10.44 ERA in five starts in the Bronx, surrendering 10 HR in 25 IP.
Media outlets in Boston - most notably the Boston Globe - were calling this the biggest non-playoff start of Price's career in a Red Sox uniform. And if Sunday night was any indication, Price wasn't right, and won't be if his foes are swathed in pinstripes.
But even if nothing happened other than a one-game shift in the standings, the Yankees and Red Sox pull epic weight considering they play each other 19 times every year. Only the news of LeBron James signing with the Lakers could obscure the final game - and an 11-1 blowout, at that - of a midseason clash between the best teams in baseball. (Or at least the two teams best suited to bump the Astros from their championship perch.)
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Perhaps the saddest part of this rivalry - and maybe the most exciting - is that one of these two clubs will win 100 games yet lose out on the AL East crown, then be forced to slug it out in a one-game playoff in the Wild Card round. The Yankees will deny they are desperate for a starting pitcher, then trade for one before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. And that will be the closest thing to a seismic move among the two clubs.
What you saw this weekend - two Yankees routs sandwiched around an 11-0 Red Sox blowout - may not be the scores you'd normally see between them. Things should be a bit closer as the season gets shorter and the days get cooler. But the teams are in a virtual tie atop the division, and, barring a Mets-ian plague of injuries, neither is going anywhere.
We want hot, fast, furious takes after every game, even over a interminable spread of a baseball season. But some things are ordained, well beyond recent history. And it just feels like the Yankees and Red Sox should be dueling deep into the summer every season, for as long as we play our pastime. Both clubs have bottomless lineups, and bottomless pockets. Both have young, energetic managers. Both have a sprawling fan base that breaks area and zip codes across the country.
And hopefully, both teams feel a little antipathy toward the other. Without advocating injuries, fights, or wayward fastballs to the back, the Yanks and Sox are at their white-hot best when there's some white-hot hatred glaring in each direction. If you believe that the emotional fuels the physical - and have watched this rivalry for more than five years - then you won't mind a little barbarism among baseball's most celebrated teams.
It also doesn't hurt that the Yankees and Red Sox play their final three games against each other - between September 28-30 - at Fenway Park, likely for the division title, and a whole lot more.
Twitter: @JasonKeidel
