Over two months into the regular season, and we finally have a Yankees/Red Sox series upon us.
This three-game set in the Bronx has some added juice thanks to the unexpected success from Boston, which currently sits 2.5 games ahead of the Yanks in the AL East standings after gaining a game on Thursday.
So, for the first time since 2018, the stakes feel a bit higher for baseball’s greatest rivalry, something that felt like an annual occurrence a decade-plus ago. The Yanks/Sox rivalry has delivered countless unforgettable moments, and as the two teams prepare to face off for the first time in 2021, let’s look back at the best regular season moments that the rivalry has produced. There are too many to list, from Mark Teixeira’s walk-off grand slam in 2016 to Alex Rodriguez’s walk-off home run against Junichi Tazawa in the 15th inning in 2009, but here are five that stand out, plus a bonus entry:
Dave Righetti’s No-Hitter
New York and Boston were separated by only 3.5 games on July 4, 1983, when Righetti took the mound to try and stop the Red Sox from taking the first three games of a four-game set. Losing three in a row to their hated rivals, on George Steinbrenner’s birthday of all days, sounded hardly ideal.
Righetti made sure that didn’t happen, tossing the first no-hitter at Yankee Stadium since Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series. He struck out nine and walked four, including leadoff man Jeff Newman, a .190 hitter, in the ninth inning. But he struck out Wade Boggs to seal the deal and fanned on Righetti’s 132nd pitch to complete the no-no.
Mike Mussina’s Almost Perfect Game
Mussina tried to join Righetti in Yankees/Red Sox history, and came painfully close at Fenway on Sept. 2, 2001. One strike close, to be exact.
The game itself was a thriller outside of the potential perfect game. David Cone, the last Yankee to throw a perfect game, was matching zeroes with Mussina for Boston, and the game was scoreless in the ninth before the Yanks scratched a run across on Cone thanks to an RBI double by Enrique Wilson. That put Mussina in prime position to make history, but after two quick outs, pinch hitter Carl Everett fought off a 1-2 pitch into left center to leave Mussina one strike short of baseball immortality.
Historic Comeback at Fenway
Per Baseball Reference’s win probability chart, the Red Sox had a 100 percent chance of victory heading into the seventh inning on April 21, 2012, but that would flip to the other side by the end of the ninth.
Trailing 9-0 (!) after five, the Yanks stormed back with one of their greatest rallies of all time, scoring 15 unanswered runs, including hanging seven on the board in the seventh and eighth innings, to stun Boston in a 15-9 victory at Fenway.
It started with a seemingly harmless solo shot by Teixeira in the top of the sixth off Felix Doubront, but the floodgates had opened. Nick Swisher followed with a grand slam, and three batters later, Teixeira blasted a three-run home run to pull the Yanks within one. The in the eighth, Swisher and Teixiera each smoked two-run doubles to pull the Bombers ahead 12-9, and after double by Russell Martin and a single by Derek Jeter, the Yanks had completed their shocking offensive surge in one of their most improbable victories of all time.
A-Rod and Varitek Duel
The Yanks/Sox rivalry reached its peak in 2004 after Aaron Boone’s heroics in the 2003 ALCS, and the arrival of Rodriguez only added to the feud. On July 24, Rodriguez made his formal entry into the rivalry when he went at it with Jason Varitek in the third inning after Rodriguez was plunked by Bronson Arroyo. After exchanging some pleasantries, the two tangled while the benches emptied. Tanyon Sturtze, the Yankees’ starting pitcher, caught a punch to the ear and was bleeding, but stayed in the game, while Varitek and Rodriguez were ejected.
The game itself was a wild one. The Yanks led 3-0, then trailed 4-3, then led 9-4 and eventually 10-8 heading into the bottom of the ninth, when Kevin Millar singled home Nomar Garciaparra before Bill Mueller hit a walk-off two-run blast off Mariano Rivera to give Boston a wild win.
Jeter’s Dive
Three weeks before the Varitek/Rodriguez brawl, the Yanks and Red Sox played in one of the most memorable regular season games the rivalry has ever seen. Tied in the top of the 12th, the Red Sox had runners on second and third and two out when Sturtze forced Trot Nixon to lift a pop fly into no-man’s land near the third base line in shallow left. Well, maybe not no-man’s land, since Jeter was on the field.
Jeter darted over from shortstop, reached out to make the catch and tried to slow his momentum as he went crashing into the seats, emerging with a bloodied face that forced him to come out of the game. He told trainers he would play the next day.
Manny Ramirez took Sturtze deep in the 13th to give Boston the lead before Miguel Cairo tied it with a two-out double in the bottom half of the inning, and John Flaherty won it in the next at-bat with a single.
Extra: “Deep to left!”
According to Major League Baseball, one-game playoffs count statistically as regular season games, so how could we not talk about Bucky Dent?
Everyone knows the story: Fourteen and a half games back, Mickey Rivers’ bat and an improbable three-run home run to turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead, and eventual Yankee win, which catapulted the team to a second straight World Series crown.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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