Red Sox and Yankees Seem Like Wild Cards, Who Will Feast And Who Will Famine In October?
By: Chris Felico
For all the twists and turns of the 2025 season, October baseball feels like it is already setting the table for one of its most familiar dishes: Red Sox versus Yankees. Despite Boston currently owning the season series at a lopsided 8–2 clip—taking every series and most recently three of four in the Bronx—the Red Sox have failed to fully separate themselves in the standings. As the calendar flips to September, they cling to just a half-game lead over New York for the first Wild Card spot, meaning these rivals are on a collision course for a best-of-three showdown with Fenway Park or Yankee Stadium as the backdrop, with a mid-September season series finale at Fenway Park potentially being a deciding factor of which ballpark will host October.
The oddity of the 2025 Yankees is how clearly their strengths and weaknesses split. They absolutely feast on bad teams, padding their record by burying weaker opponents with double-digit run totals and setting what feels like new home run marks every other night. Yet when the competition stiffens—whether it’s the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Astros, or Tigers—New York has often sputtered. Against Boston in particular, the Yankees have looked like a different team entirely, unable to match the intensity or capitalize on opportunities.
The Red Sox, meanwhile, embody the opposite problem. While they’ve manhandled New York, they’ve also stumbled in frustrating fashion against lesser competition, including an embarrassing two-game sweep at Fenway against the Orioles right before their latest clash with the Yankees. That inconsistency explains why Boston’s dominance of their archrival hasn’t translated into a comfortable playoff cushion. Still, should the season end today, the Wild Card round would pit these two against each other in a three-game battle at Fenway. But with New York holding a significantly softer remaining schedule—and a proven ability to bully bad teams—the venue is far from certain.
Home-field advantage could prove decisive, as both clubs play markedly better in their own parks. But even with Boston’s commanding head-to-head record, nothing feels safe in a short series. Would a Crochet–Bello combo truly give the Sox a significant edge over Fried and Rodón? On paper, yes. In reality, Boston’s bats have been maddeningly inconsistent and vulnerable to elite pitching. The Red Sox may have scratched out a 1–0 win against Fried, but their inability to pile on against a struggling arm should give fans pause. Factor in the Sox leading the league in one-run losses and their struggles to mount comebacks, and it’s clear the margin for error in October is razor thin.
The Yankees, for their part, enter such a matchup with their own glaring issues. Outside of the two games they jumped ahead early, they’ve wilted against Boston, showing little resilience when punched in the mouth. Their fielding miscues, lack of timely hitting, and failure to seize on Red Sox mistakes have been defining features of this rivalry clash in 2025. Unless they flip that switch, their path against Boston looks uphill no matter the venue.
Still, the sense of inevitability looms. These two bitter rivals appear destined to open October against each other, with little separating them despite the Red Sox’s season-long dominance. They are similar in ways that make their contrasts even sharper: New York punishes the weak but falters against equals, while Boston thrives against rivals but trips over its own shoelaces against underdogs. When the lights shine in October, none of that will matter. One team will feast. The other will famine. And as always when it’s Red Sox–Yankees, the entire baseball world will be watching.