October 5, 2021

AL Wild Card: Yankees at Red Sox, 8 PM ET

In which we ignore all the preliminary bullshit and get straight to Game 7.

The Red Sox and Yankees both finished the 2021 regular season with a record of 92-70. And so they  will meet tonight at Fenway Park in the winner-take-all Wild Card Game to decide who will travel to Tampa Bay and meet the Rays (100-62) in the American League Division Series on Thursday.

[Postseason Contest (enter before the first pitch tonight)]

Back in the spring, everyone and his dog confidently assured us the Yankees would steamroll to a division title and win the World Series without breaking a sweat. Another overwhelming consensus among those self-described experts was that the Red Sox would finish fourth in the AL East, saved from a last-place finish due only to the Orioles' wretchedness.

But, as so often happens, real life intruded. The Red Sox actually finished the season ahead of the Yankees – by virtue of winning the season series 10-9 – which is why tonight's game is in Boston.

Boston won the first seven games between the two teams and 9 of the first 11, but lost the final six games and seven of the last eight.
June 4-6:         W W W
June 25-27:       W W W
July 16-18:       W L L
July 22-25:       W W L W
August 17-18:     L L L
September 24-26:  L L L
Red Sox at home in 2021: 49-32 (4th in AL, 7th in MLB)
Yankees on road in 2021: 46-35 (2nd in AL, 5th in MLB)

Last 30 Games: Red Sox 17-13, Yankees 16-14
Last 20 Games: Yankees 13-7, Red Sox 12-8
Last 10 Games: Yankees 7-3, Red Sox 5-5

Gerrit Cole / Nathan Eovaldi

                 G  IP  H    R  ER  BB   K   ERA    WHIP
Cole vs Red Sox  4  22  24  13  12   9  31   4.91  1.500
Eovaldi vs MFY   6  34  38  15  14   4  34   3.71  1.235

Eovaldi's earned runs vs Yankees, by start: 1, 1, 1, 2, 2, 7. . . . Cole has a 6.15 ERA in his last five starts (and 7.64 in his last three).

Calling Bucky Dent? 1978? . . . The Red Sox should be Calling Aroldis Chapman! 2019 and 2020!

In 2019, Chapman gave up an AL pennant- and season-losing home run to Jose Altuve.

In 2020, Chapman gave up an ALDS- and season-losing home run to Mike Brosseau.

In 2021 . . . can Chapman (aka Mr. YED) go for the hat trick? I'm sure that won't be on his mind at all. . . . The MFY say they have confidence in him. (So does Rafael Devers.)

Good News: The Extra Innings Automatic Runner will not be used during the postseason. . . . With any luck, that asinine abomination is now in our rear view mirror, leaving only asterisks to mark 2020 and 2021 regular season linescores.

More Good News: Umpire Joe West will retire at the end of the 2021 season. However, he will fuck up an unknown number of postseason games before he does so.

* * *

2021 Postseason Schedule

AL Wild Card: October 5
NL Wild Card: October 6

ALDS: October 7, 8, 10, 11, 13
NLDS: October 8, 9, 11, 12, 14

ALCS: October 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23
NLCS: October 16, 17, 19, 20, 21, 23, 24

World Series: October 26, 27, 29, 30, 31, November 2, 3

5 comments:

allan said...

Globe: "The Red Sox and Yankees playing in a winner-take-all? Who better to talk to than Bucky (Bleeping) Dent. Dan Shaughnessy caught up with the man who broke the hearts of Red Sox Nation in 1978."

With apologies to The New Yorker, file this under "Dept. of Articles We Never Started Reading".

You know what? ALCS Game 7 in 2004 also featured "the Red Sox and Yankees playing in a winner-take-all". So why not talk about that game? Who better to talk to than Johnny "2-Home-Runs-6 RBI-Dagger-In-The-Fucking-Neck" Damon? Or maybe Kevin "Mordecai" Brown?

Why go back 43 years when you could go back only 17 seasons to something that Red Sox fans might care about (that was also when we stopped giving a shit about BFD forever) or maybe look back only two full seasons ago and revisit 2018 ALDS (which actually included some players who are also playing tonight)?

Oh, right, because you're a miserable hack who has been embarrassing yourself as a self-parody for decades, who cannot do anything but recycle and re-purpose the same horribly outdated bullshit, trying to be "outrageous" in a transparent and pathetic bid for "clicks". You fixate on 1978 because it's probably the last time you wrote a column that was even remotely relevant. Why not try to get a pithy quote from the great-grandson of Denny Galehouse?

nick said...

Watching this game and I’m really missing the JOS game threads of yore. Hope you’re enjoying watching it!

Zenslinger said...

Talk about hacks and self parody, listening to A-Rod during this game is fucking killing me.

Zenslinger said...

Apparently, the Red Sox are doing a great job because they're going right at the Yankees, who are like bullies. And you can't run from the Yankees, because they're like bullies, you see, so if you do flee the Yankkes, "you can run, but you can't hide." I mean, it's like "Let me find my way to some intense-sounding cliche that has no connection to the game of baseball".

He was trying to make this connection between Rizzo and Schwarber just because they played together for the Cubs in 2016 -- because they both homered. Furthering these amazing parallels, he claims they're both playing first base, when Schwarber's playing DH.

Paul Hickman said...

Yeeeeeeesssssssssss


Xander Fucking Bogaerts !

Or if you like,

Gerrit Fucking Cole

Phil Fucking Nevin

or

Just Fucking Better !!!!!!!


43 years is a long long long time

Who's Going Home ......

Not This Time