BOSTON — The first meeting between the Yankees and the Boston Red Sox this season carries more story lines than a typical April series. Two pinstriped players who grew up about 45 minutes from Fenway Park are both arriving as central figures, for very different reasons. And a third Yankees starter, struggling to hold his rotation spot, faces perhaps his most important early-season outing.
The Yankees (13-9) open a three-game set Tuesday at Fenway after sweeping Kansas City over the weekend. The Red Sox are 9-13, climbing slowly from a 2-8 start. There is no question which team carries more momentum into the series. The question is what each player does with the stage they have been handed.
Ben Rice: Hometown hero Boston almost drafted
Ben Rice grew up in Cohasset, Massachusetts, a South Shore town about 45 minutes from Fenway Park. His story comes with a twist that Boston fans may not have fully processed. He grew up a Yankees fan. And now he is one of the best hitters in baseball.
Entering Tuesday’s series opener, the Yankees slugger led all of Major League Baseball with a .476 on-base percentage and an .800 slugging percentage. His 1.276 OPS ranked at the top of the sport. His .338 average led the American League. His eight home runs were tied for third-most in the game.
The Red Sox targeted Rice as an amateur. They passed. The Yankees drafted him in the fourth round in 2021. He is now what Boston’s scouting department once imagined he might become, except he is doing it in pinstripes.
Aaron Judge, asked Sunday about Rice’s emergence after both homered in the series-sweeping win over the Royals, did not dress it up.
“He’s top of the league right now,” the Yankees captain said.
Manager Aaron Boone has drawn criticism this season for occasionally keeping Rice on the bench against left-handed pitchers, preferring to deploy him as a pinch-hit weapon. Rice has responded by hitting lefties at a 1.332 OPS clip, third-best in the majors. Three of his eight homers have come against southpaws.
Boone pushed back on any suggestion that Rice is a platoon player.
“I like him pretty much against everyone,” the Yankees skipper said.
The main news: Gil under the microscope Tuesday
The opener on Tuesday carries the most uncertainty for the Yankees. Luis Gil (0-1, 7.00 ERA) takes the mound against Boston left-hander Connelly Early (1-0, 2.29 ERA) in a 6:45 p.m. ET start on TBS.
Gil, the 2024 AL Rookie of the Year, has allowed a career-worst 4.0 home runs per nine innings in his two 2026 starts. His ERA through two outings stands at 7.00. The walk issues that plagued him in 2025 have not disappeared.
The Boston series opens a door for the Yankees pitcher. Both of Gil’s career wins at Fenway Park came in previous appearances there. The Red Sox own one of the worst offenses in baseball at home in 2026, averaging just 3.44 runs per game at Fenway, 27th in the majors. Before Monday’s win over Detroit, Boston had scored more than two runs in just one of its previous four games.
The stakes are clear. Gerrit Cole made his rehab debut last weekend with Double-A Somerset, throwing 44 pitches across 4 1/3 innings and touching 96 mph on the radar gun. Manager Boone has said the club expects Carlos Rodon to return before Cole. When either pitcher is ready, someone in the Yankees’ rotation loses a spot. Gil’s start Tuesday will factor into that decision.
Schlittler: Death threats, Fenway debut and a rivalry rekindled
The series closer on Thursday features the most combustible storyline of the three games. Yankees’ Cam Schlittler (2-1, 1.95 ERA) is scheduled to make his first career start at Fenway Park, against Boston right-hander Brayan Bello (1-2, 6.75 ERA), in a 6:10 p.m. ET start on FOX.
Schlittler grew up in Walpole, Massachusetts, about 40 miles from the ballpark he will pitch in for the first time Thursday. He attended the Red Sox’s 2004 World Series championship parade with his father. He later played college ball at Northeastern, in the city. Then the Yankees drafted him. His family converted. Boston has treated that as a betrayal.
This past week, Schlittler confirmed to the New York Post’s Joel Sherman that he and his family have received death threats from Red Sox fans ahead of the start. The Yankees ace told The Athletic that the harassment arrives every week and every day. He has not considered involving police.
Asked about the volume and nature of what he receives, Schlittler attributed it to a specific type of fan rather than the broader Boston base.
“Most normal fans could care less, right?” Schlittler said. “It’s just those diehards that just have nothing else in their lives other than baseball or sports that really care about this, and the fact that I play for the Yankees makes it worse for them.”
The backstory starts with the 2025 AL Wild Card Series. Red Sox fans went after his family on social media before Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, forcing his mother off X. Schlittler responded by throwing eight shutout innings with 12 strikeouts and zero walks, a postseason combination that had never been produced before. The Yankees advanced. Boston went home.
None of that has quieted anything. If anything, it made the anticipation for Thursday more charged.
Schlittler heads to Fenway as the Yankees’ best starter by most measures. His 1.95 ERA ranks eighth among all major league starters. His walk rate of 2.9 percent ranks first. His 34.3 percent strikeout rate is fourth. His 1.5 fWAR leads the sport.
As of Tuesday, a year’s worth of buildup between this pitcher and this city comes to its first regular-season conclusion.
“I don’t expect to get a friendly welcome, which I’m planning on,” the Yankees’ budding superstar said. “It’s going to be a great atmosphere.”
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