NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Yankees-Red Sox matchups have produced plenty of melodrama, with video clips of Bucky Dent, Pedro Mart\u00ednez, Aaron Boone, Curt Schilling and Dave Roberts becoming a staple of videoboards and TV broadcasts.<\/p>\n
Boone\u2019s 11th-inning walk-off home run for New York against Boston in Game 7 of the 2003 American League Championship Series became the defining moment of his baseball career and perhaps his life.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand that a lot of people have an amazing story, a lot of those that I\u2019ve heard, tied to that moment,\u201d the Yankees manager said Monday on the eve of his team\u2019s best-of-three Wild Card Series against the Red Sox.<\/p>\n
Payton Tolle starts Tuesday night\u2019s opener for Boston and Cam Schlittler will be on the mound for the Yankees. This will be the seventh postseason meeting between the longtime rivals and second Wild Card Series in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cA real slobberknocker,\u201d Tolle said, using slang for a brutal fight.<\/p>\n
New York (93-68) finished second in the AL East behind Tampa Bay (98-64), and the Red Sox (87-75) were third. The first-round winner advances to a Division Series against the Rays.<\/p>\n
Tolle got one out in last year\u2019s Wild Card Series, a month after his major league debut.<\/p>\n
\u201cWalking out there to the \u2018pen last year, you see how much the fans interact, how bought-in they are,\u201d he said. \u201dYou see how much it means. You get to hear how loud it gets and just try and turn that into white noise the best you can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yankees rookie outfielder Spencer Jones watched part of last year\u2019s matchup while driving with his girlfriend from Scranton, Pennsylvania, where he finished the season with the Yankees\u2019 Triple-A farm team, to Nashville, Tennessee.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stopped at a Chipotle and we just sat there and watched on the iPad,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve heard that these Wild Card Series get pretty intense, get pretty rowdy,\u201d he added. \u201cThis is going to be the most fun baseball I\u2019ve ever played.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York hosts all three games because of its better finish in the standings. Yankee Stadium\u2019s short porch in right field could be a factor for left-handed hitters, similar to how Fenway Park\u2019s Green Monster in left is an inviting target for right-handed batters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think in an ideal situation, we\u2019re at home in front of our fans,\u201d said Red Sox outfielder Roman Anthony, a leadoff hitter who bats from the left side. \u201cI\u2019m not trying to just go out there and pull home runs, right? I think for me and for everyone, it\u2019s about getting on base and manufacturing runs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Judge, Stanton, Grisham are Yankees injury concerns<\/p>\n
Aaron Judge (calf strain), Giancarlo Stanton (calf strains in both legs) and Trent Grisham (right hamstring) all took live batting practice at Yankee Stadium on Monday, hoping to be included on the series roster.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been doing a lot of convincing, I feel like, so I\u2019m going to keep doing that,\u201d Judge said just after arriving at the stadium. \u201cThe most important thing is just making sure I\u2019m healthy and ready to go for this long stretch. We\u2019ve got another month of baseball to play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crochet could be Red Sox reliever<\/p>\n
Left-hander Garrett Crochet, who won last season\u2019s opener against the Yankees by allowing one run and four hits in 7 2\/3 innings, could be a bullpen option for Boston.<\/p>\n
He has not pitched since April 25 because of left shoulder inflammation.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s worked very hard to get everything back strong the way it needs to be, but we\u2019re still going to be evaluating him daily to see where he\u2019s at,\u201d manager Chad Tracy said.<\/p>\n
Big Boston rebound<\/p>\n
Manager Alex Cora, who led the Red Sox to the 2018 World Series title, was fired on April 25 with Boston at 10-17 and replaced by Tracy, who had been managing the Triple-A Worcester farm team.<\/p>\n
Boston dropped to 32-46 on June 24, then went a major league-best 55-29. The Red Sox are just the fourth team to reach the postseason after dropping 14 games under .500, joining the 1914 Boston Braves and 2005 Houston Astros.<\/p>\n
New face<\/p>\n
Braiden Ward, a speedy 27-year-old outfielder who spent the season at Worcester, was in the Red Sox clubhouse and was assigned a locker with No. 25. He could become the seventh player to make his major league debut in the postseason.<\/p>\n
Ward stole 61 bases in 70 attempts this year and has 272 stolen bases in 523 minor league games.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s like a dream. It\u2019s a fever dream,\u201d he said. \u201cOne day I\u2019m in Worcester and the next day I\u2019m in Florida, the next day I\u2019m at the nicest hotel we\u2019ve ever stayed at in New York City with the greatest view, the greatest team, getting to hopefully play in the greatest rivalry.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cora had told Ward during spring training he could be a postseason option off the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo of my best friends are Yankee fans, so hopefully I get to talk absolute smack to them the entire time,\u201d he said. \u201cI joke with the team. It\u2019s like, how cool would it be to have your debut be Game 3, ninth inning and they\u2019re like, `Hey Ward, you\u2019re out there. Have fun.\u2019 So nothing crazy. No pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
See AP\u2019s full MLB coverage here <\/p>\n
Ronald Blum, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Yankees-Red Sox matchups have produced plenty of melodrama, with video clips of Bucky Dent,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913476,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,462,82],"class_list":["post-913475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-mlb","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913475\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}