Well, if this doesn't fully acclimate me back to Boston then nothing will.
The Boston Red Sox will host the New York Yankees at Fenway Park in the AL Wild Card game on Tuesday night. The winner will face the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays in the ALDS starting Thursday.
The Yankees clinched their spot with a 1-0 victory over the aforementioned Rays as pinch runner Tyler Wade slid under the tag at home plate on a walk off single by Aaron Judge. The game was also notable for a spectacular catch made by Yankees shortstop Gio Urshela who fell down the stairs of the Rays dugout and would later have to leave the game.
If the Yankees lose to Boston then Aaron Boone is done after four seasons as the team's manager. The Bronx Bombers had losing records in both April and June before having a 21-8 August highlighted by a 13-game winning streak. But after the 13-game winning streak, the Yankees would lose 12 of their next 15 games before winning 9 of their last 10 games to finish September.
Simply put the Yankees are either very good or quite awful. Mostly they've been quite good but in New York City quite good isn't good enough. The Yankees have seen down years from DJ LeMahieu and Gary Sanchez and injury riddled campaigns from Luke Voit, Clint Frazier and Miguel Andujar. The mid-season acquisitions of Anthony Rizzo from the Chicago Cubs and Joey Gallo from the Texas Rangers have been mixed at best. Even closer Aroldis Chapman has had an inconsistent season. What has kept the Yankees in the mix is Gerrit Cole stepping up as an ace and the one two punch of Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
Even if the Yankees prevail over the Red Sox on Tuesday night I don't anything short of an AL pennant will be enough for Aaron Boone to be in the Yankees dugout in 2022.
The same cannot be said for Red Sox manager Alex Cora. The Red Sox punched their AL Wild Card berth in a 7-5 comeback victory against the Washington Nationals after being down 5-2 in the 7th inning with 2 HRs from Rafael Devers including a go ahead HR in the 9th. This marks their first post-season appearance since winning the World Series in 2018.
When Cora returned to the Red Sox dugout after a one year suspension for his role in the 2017 Houston Astros sign stealing scandal, the Red Sox were not expected to contend in 2021 with a roster that included Bobby Dalbec, Alex Verdugo and prospect turned suspect Christian Arroyo.
Instead, the Red Sox spent a good portion of the season atop the AL East. Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley, Jr. might have been gone but Devers, J.D. Martinez and Xander Bogaerts were still around and ex-Dodger Kike Hernandez and former Padre Hunter Renfroe provided plenty of help.
The starting rotation of Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Nick Pivetta is decent. Chris Sale missed most of the season but was good in limited action. The bullpen of Matt Barnes, Adam Ottavino and Hirokazu Sawumura is overtaxed while Josh Taylor and Garrett Whitlock are on the IL.
Even if the Red Sox survive the Yankees I don't think they would overcome the Rays. Nevertheless, they managed to do far more in 2021 than anyone had any right to expect.
This could have potentially been a four way AL Wild Card tiebreaker with the Toronto Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. The Blue Jays led by Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. handed the Baltimore Orioles their 110th and final loss of the 2021 season. But the Jays needed either the Yankees or Red Sox to lose and that didn't happen.
As for the Mariners they lost to the Los Angeles Angels 7-3. So now they begin their third decade of their post-season drought. They have not been to the post-season since tying the MLB record of 116 wins in 2001.
On a personal note, I have not been watching a lot of baseball and I currently do not have a TV. I listened to the Red Sox-Nationals game on my computer but it gave out. So I went to a sports bar near Porter Square and watched the Red Sox-Nationals, Yankees-Rays and Mariners-Angels simultaneously while most of the bar watched NFL Sunday. Although I'm uneasy in crowds of drunken people, I plan to go back on Tuesday night to watch at least a bit of the Red Sox-Yankees Wild Card game. I'm back in Boston. So I might as well.
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