The shift started in mid-August in The Bronx and has continued this weekend in Boston.
The pendulum in this heated rivalry has swung back away from the Red Sox. Now, after five straight losses to the Yankees — including defeats Friday and Saturday — the teams are tied for the first AL wild-card spot.
The latest setback for Boston came in demoralizing fashion, with Giancarlo Stanton’s eighth-inning grand slam providing the margin of victory in the Yankees’ 5-3 win at Fenway Park.
“It’s always like this. We have two good teams and I think in this division, nobody is going to dominate the other teams. It happens,” manager Alex Cora said. “It’s two good teams and if you look at the margins of the scores early on, they were close games, too.”
It has been a bizarre season for both teams, full of peaks and valleys. The season series between the two has been typical of that. Boston won the first seven games between the two rivals. Lately, the Yankees have owned the Red Sox, outscoring them 25-11 in the last five games. Entering Sunday’s series finale, the Yankees have won six of the past seven. They have identical records — both teams are 21 games over .500 at 88-67 — and could very well meet in the wild-card game a week from Tuesday.
Two Red Sox, Rafael Devers and Kevin Plawecki, were also hit by fastballs in the final two innings. Plawecki had to come out in the ninth after getting drilled by an Aroldis Chapman 98-mph heater. X-rays were negative on Plawecki’s foot.
“I guess I dodged a bullet, you could say,” the former Mets catcher said.
More than anything, the Red Sox suddenly can’t touch the Yankees’ pitching. They’ve managed just 12 runs in the five-game skid, and were held down Saturday by Nestor Cortes Jr. and four relievers. Boston’s bullpen, meanwhile, couldn’t do the job, and Cora didn’t push the right button in the biggest moment of the game.
After back-to-back walks by Tanner Houck to Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge with two outs in the eighth inning, Cora called on southpaw Darwinzon Hernandez to face Anthony Rizzo, although Stanton was on deck. It backfired. Hernandez hit Rizzo with a pitch to load the bases, and Stanton blasted the first pitch he saw over the Green Monster in left field. Hernandez does get right-handed hitters out, as Cora pointed out. They were batting just .184 against him.
“We had Gardner with two strikes, we didn’t put him away. We had Judge with two strikes, we didn’t put him away, and [Stanton] just got to him,” Cora said. “A tough one of course, but we got to show up tomorrow. We know where we’re at and [we have to] be ready to play.”