New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox: Series Preview

The Yankees wrapped up a two-game sweep of the Rays at Steinbrenner Field and return home having reemerged from their midseason malaise. With wins in five consecutive and seven of their last eight games across three straight series wins, the Bombers will bring some momentum to Yankee Stadium and begin a four-game set with the archrival and Wild Card neighbor Red Sox, in what promises to be one of the most pivotal series of the season.

The rivalry series has unfortunately been quite one-sided through their first two meetings: the Red Sox have taken five of the first six from the Yankees including a demoralizing weekend sweep at Fenway Park in mid-June. That series foreshadowed more grim days in store for the then-first-place Bombers, and by the time their backslide reached its most dire point on August 10th, the Red Sox had passed them in the standings. The Yankees have surged back ahead of Boston by a game and a half, which is far too close for comfort. They’ll meet the Red Sox one more time in September, but it feels absolutely critical that the Yankees win or at least tie this series to hold serve in the Wild Card race.

Thursday: Luis Gil vs. Lucas Giolito(7:15 PM ET)

Gil’s third start of the season was a Houdini act of sorts in St. Louis, in which he used a succession of double plays to get around some early traffic. He completed five scoreless innings before hitting some choppy waters in the sixth and ultimately being relieved by Mark Leiter Jr. It was still enough for Gil’s first win of the season and another step in the right direction for the 27-year-old righty, who now gets his toughest assignment yet. Even without Rafael Devers, the Red Sox’ offense is still plenty formidable. Alex Bregman missed that June series with a quad strain, but he’s back and putting up monster numbers. So is Roman Anthony, who has been an on-base machine thus far: a .400 OBP entering action.

Giolito made his return from Tommy John surgery at the end of April and has been a sorely-needed steady presence in the rotation for a Red Sox team which had plenty of question marks on their staff. The 31-year old has a 3.63 ERA despite posting the lowest strikeout rate of his career since 2018, a season that went so poorly for him many wondered if he was a bust. Statcast is suspicious of his results so far, giving him a 5.24 xERA. He has not been particularly great at avoiding high-quality contact but appears to be dancing through the raindrops so far. In theory, the Yankees should be able to do some damage, but we’ll see if Max Fried’s former Harvard-Westlake teammate has some tricks up his sleeve.

Friday: Max Fried vs. Brayan Bello(7:05 PM ET)

Those of you with a good memory will recall that this particular matchup is a rematch of the June series finale. While Fried pitched valiantly, allowing two runs and striking out nine Red Sox across seven innings, it was Bello who stole the show with seven scoreless frames and eight Ks in a 3-0 shutout win for Boston. The Yankees would love a performance like the one Fried gave in that tough-luck loss; there was little luck involved in his last start against the Cardinals, in which he allowed a season-high seven runs on eight hits.

Not unlike Fried, Bello’s at his best when he’s keeping opposing hitters on the ground. He doesn’t typically miss very many bats but the eight strikeouts he racked up against the Yankees was the second-most in a start this season behind his complete game victory over Colorado, in which he struck out 10. He largely ditched his sweeper in that start, preferring to attack Yankee hitters with his cutter and changeup. We’ll see if he adopts a similar strategy against a lineup which has undoubtedly gotten deeper since the deadline.

Saturday: Will Warren vs. Garrett Crochet(1:05 PM ET)

One only wishes Gerrit Cole were healthy. I’m sure everyone would pay top dollar to see Cole take on Garrett Crochet. Thankfully, one of Cole’s protégés has been quite good in his place, especially at home. Will Warren struggled with his command on the road again last time out, but the Yankees picked him up in a sweep-clinching victory in St. Louis. Now the rookie returns to Yankee Stadium, where he’s posted a 2.86 ERA across 13 starts, with 81 strikeouts in 72.1 innings.

At this point, we know that Crochet is in the top echelon of MLB starting pitchers. Last time against the Yankees he flirted with a complete game shutout before Aaron Judge’s ninth-inning homer. He’s second in the league in strikeouts with 196 and tied for the American League lead in innings with 159.1. His 2.43 ERA is neck-and-neck with Tarik Skubal’s 2.32. With that said, this is uncharted territory for him. That innings total is his high-water mark as a professional, surpassing last season, which was his first completing triple-digit frames. Last year the White Sox were quite cautious with him, scaling back his workload drastically in the second half to ensure his health. The Red Sox appear to have no such inhibitions, as well they shouldn’t given how critical he is to their postseason hopes. But how will Crochet hold up down the stretch? It remains to be seen.

Sunday: Carlos Rodón vs. Dustin May(7:05 PM ET)

With the benefit of a monstrous amount of run support, Rodón calmly completed his second consecutive quality start. The last month or so has been a bit choppier for him, but if he can continue to rein in the walks as he has those last two times out, he should be back to how he looked in the first half. After all, hitters still can’t touch his stuff when he’s locating it: that .186 average against remains the absolute top mark in 2025 among qualified starting pitchers.

Dustin May was one of the precious few deadline acquisitions Craig Breslow made, and he’s been fairly good in his new digs. May’s also coming into this having notched quality starts in his last two turns, though he was outdone by Trevor Rogers in a tough-luck loss earlier this week. He’s another guy who recently surpassed his previous career high in innings, and his fastball just doesn’t look the same as it did in his previous MLB seasons, which were generally interrupted by some injury or another. As a result his sweeper has taken center stage: he throws the breaking ball about 40 percent of the time. This will be May’s first time facing the Yankees in his career.