NEW YORK — The Boston Red Sox lasted two nights in the Bronx. The arguments they left behind are still going.
The Yankees swept the American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, winning 9-0 on Tuesday and 9-2 on Wednesday. Boston scored two runs in 18 innings.
New York did it without Aaron Judge. Max Fried and Cam Schlittler held the Red Sox to one run over 12 1/3 innings. Cody Bellinger’s three-run homer in a six-run seventh inning ended any doubt in Game 2. Earlier, Luis García Jr. broke a scoreless tie with a fourth-inning homer off Sonny Gray, and Boston ace Garrett Crochet failed to retire any of the four hitters he faced.
Boston’s season had swung wildly. The Red Sox fired manager Alex Cora during a start that left them 14 games under .500 in late June. They answered with a 15-game winning streak and a franchise-record 21-4 month to reach the No. 5 seed.
The Yankees have now eliminated the Red Sox in back-to-back postseasons for the first time. New York holds a 4-3 edge in seven postseason meetings, winning in 1999, 2003, 2025 and 2026.
Boston scored five runs across its last four playoff games against the Yankees, all played in the Bronx. Willson Contreras’ homer in Game 2 ended a Red Sox postseason scoring drought of 26 2/3 innings.
In most years, the conversation would move straight to the next round. This time it moved somewhere else.
Boston’s season had become a talking point well beyond Fenway Park. A U.S. senator fighting for her political life had tied part of her pitch to it. A Massachusetts-born media mogul with millions of followers was ready to defend it.
By Thursday morning, both had to answer to a Yankees team that outscored their club 18-2.
A campaign ad that bet on Boston
Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine is seeking a sixth term. Her campaign aired an ad that used the rivalry to frame her race against Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat and well-known Yankees fan.
The spot cuts between Fenway Park, an unsmiling Schumer and Collins greeting voters across Maine. The opening line read like a scouting report on the Yankees.
“The Red Sox know how to handle the Yankees, and Susan Collins knows how to handle Yankee superfan Chuck Schumer,” the narrator says.
The ad then shifts from baseball to home-state loyalty. It casts Schumer’s rooting interest as proof of where his priorities sit.
“While Chuck Schumer roots for New York, Susan’s team is Maine,” the narrator says.
Schumer is a frequent Collins target because Democratic groups tied to him have spent heavily against her. A nonprofit affiliated with the Schumer-linked Senate Majority PAC put $2 million into ads against Collins earlier this year, according to Axios.
Schumer answers anti-Yankees slugfest
Schumer took his turn the morning after the clinch. Asked about the series, he took aim at the ad’s premise.
“It wasn’t the Yankees who struck out the last two nights,” Schumer said.
Collins’ Democratic challenger did not escape the series either. Troy Jackson, a former Maine Senate president and logger from northern Maine, posted his support for Boston before the opener.
“Go Sox,” Jackson wrote on X.
The unnecessary Portnoy stunt
The second Boston voice arrived after the final out. Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy, a Massachusetts native and longtime Red Sox fan, watched the Yankees celebrate in their clubhouse and posted his verdict on X.
Portnoy aimed at the party, not the result. Champagne celebrations follow series clinches across MLB, a point an X community note later attached to his post.
“The Yankees celebrating a wild card series win with champagne just shows how far that franchise has fallen. Very embarrassing,” Portnoy wrote.
One user suggested Portnoy posts a version of the same complaint every fall.
“The yearly scheduled tweet lol. Must’ve scheduled this one last year cuz u knew it’d happen again,” one X user wrote.
By the numbers: A first in the rivalry’s October history
The sweep gave New York something it had never owned against Boston. The Yankees have now eliminated the Red Sox in back-to-back postseasons for the first time.
In seven postseason meetings, New York leads 4-3, winning in 1999, 2003, 2025 and 2026. Boston won in 2004, 2018 and the 2021 Wild Card Game.
Across the last four postseason games between the rivals, all played in the Bronx, the Red Sox scored five runs.
The regular season had pointed the other way. Boston ripped off a 15-game winning streak and a franchise-record 21-4 month, but New York took the season series 7-6, capped by a 16-1 rout in the final meeting.
Rays next as Maine race stays tight
The Yankees rest two days before Game 1 of the AL Division Series against the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays. First pitch is set for 6:30 p.m. EDT Saturday at Tropicana Field.
Tampa Bay owned the best record in the American League. The Yankees went 6-7 against the Rays during the regular season. Judge’s availability remains the biggest question around manager Aaron Boone’s lineup and roster.
A CNN/SSRS poll of 880 registered voters, taken Aug. 31 to Sept. 6, showed Jackson ahead 48% to 45% of Collins. The Cook Political Report rates the race a toss-up.
The two candidates do share one position. Both root for the Red Sox.
Boston’s season is over. The Yankees’ run continues Saturday in St. Petersburg, Florida. Maine voters go to the polls Nov. 3.
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