The season series between the Red Sox and Yankees has been highly anticipated, as we’re on the heels of a heated 2017 division race, an offseason that featured firework signings from both sides, and 120 years of Yankee fans being pinstriped idiots. Tuesday night marked the first of 19 games that will be played between New York and Boston this year. The game was nationally televised and featured each team’s ace, as both Luis Severino and Chris Sale took the mound.
The Red Sox rose to the challenge, embarrassing their division rivals with a 14-1 beat down. The star of the game for the Red Sox was Mookie Betts, who was 4-4 on the day. He set the tone in the bottom of the first when he hit a double to one of the deepest parts of the ballpark (off of the center field wall) and later came around to score on a Hanley Ramirez single. After that, the flood gates were pretty much wide open for the Sox, who pounded Severino for five runs on eight hits and chased him out of the game after just five innings. In the sixth inning, Betts put the nail in the coffin with a grand slam off Tommy Kahnle to make the score 14-1. Betts’ early season dominance has been overshadowed a bit by Xander Bogaerts’ success, but Betts has been every bit as impressive, amounting 16 hits, five doubles, and a pair of home runs in just 37 at bats.
Oh, what a day to be a Red Sox fan. In what was probably the most hyped Red Sox/Yankees opener in a decade, the Red Sox thoroughly dismantled the Yankees. As ridiculous as this may sound, a lot of my nerves surrounding this Red Sox team have been put to rest. That’s not to say that they’re going to win 130 games; that’s not even to say that they’re going to win the division, but I know for certain they’re a legitimate contender in the American League this season. I know for certain that they aren’t pretenders after winning eight of their first nine games against suspect opponents at best.
The only thing that I didn’t like about this game was Aaron Judge’s performance. Prior to today's game, Judge was a lifetime 0-12 with 10 strikeouts against Chris Sale. The Red Sox superstar was Judge’s daddy, which is nice to remind Yankees fans at every possible opportunity. Today, Judge went off with three hits against Sale, including a solo bomb to centerfield in the top of the 5th.
Overall, today’s dominating performance answered glaring questions about the 2018 ball club, chief among them Sale’s ability to beat the Evil Empire. Sale was 0-3 against the Yankees last season but beat up on them for six innings en route to his first win of 2018. Let’s hope this is a sign of good things to come.
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