4 Takeaways From Red Sox-Yankees As AL East Rivals Split Series

Yankee Stadium (NEW YORK) – Even though baseball’s most iconic rivalry didn’t quite have the same buzz as we’re used to with Aaron Judge sidelined by injury and Boston languishing at the bottom of the AL East, the Yankees and Red Sox still delivered. No matter the circumstances, when these two historic franchises share the same field, the pressure is heightened and the excitement always draws an enormous crowd. Sure, the stakes weren’t as high. But the rivalry still felt bigger. Here are my takeaways from the series split in the Bronx: 1. Lessons Learned With Judge Out Spencer Jones, the Yankees’ top outfield prospect, returned to the lineup on Friday night with a new frame of mind. Red Sox right-hander Sonny Gray found out the hard way. In his first at-bat since being called up from Triple-A to replace the injured Judge, Jones turned an eight-pitch at-bat into a 101-mph single to center field. The 25-year-old rookie gave Gray a headache all night. Gray tried to change his approach against Jones in their next meeting in the fourth inning, trying to get Jones to chase pitches outside like he did last month, when he was called up for a cup of coffee in the major leagues. But Jones didn’t bite. He waited for something better down the middle, eventually ripping an RBI double down the first-base line to right field. Hitting sixth, Jones went 3-for-3 in his return to the big leagues, showing that he had learned a thing or two during his two-week minor-league demotion. “I kind of used it as motivation,” Jones told me in the clubhouse on Sunday. “Before I got called up the first time, I always wondered if how I played was good enough.” Jones hit .167 (4-for-24) with three walks and 12 strikeouts in his brief, 10-game stint with the Yankees in May. The lefty-swinging outfielder went back down to the minors, focusing on the exact areas he needed to improve. He made subtle changes in the batter’s box, standing in different positions against certain pitchers, particularly lefties. He cleaned up his swing. He focused on being more intentional on defense and worked on getting jumps before stealing bases. He also has more confidence in his abilities this time around. Though he still hasn’t hit a home run in the major leagues, the power is there. It’s a small sample size, but his 96.9 average exit velocity and 77.6 mph bat speed are both considered elite. The homers will come, Jones said, because he no longer feels like he’s “drinking out of a firehose,” like he did the first time he was called up. “It’s only been a couple of days, but for me, I know what it feels like,” Jones said of the pressure to perform for the Yankees. “That was part of being in the minor leagues. It’s like, how do you bottle that feeling and replicate that feeling, where it’s like, I won’t let those things affect me.” 2. The Contreras Trade Is Paying Dividends For Willson Contreras, this was nothing new. The Red Sox first baseman has carried the lineup all year, so putting on a show in a visit to the Bronx was no different. In Friday’s series opener, Contreras delivered a go-ahead RBI single and a two-run home run that broke the game open in Boston’s 5-3 win over the Yankees. His two-run shot was his first-career home run at Yankee Stadium, and Contreras stopped in his tracks and admired all of it. Craig Breslow, Boston’s chief baseball officer, is known for some pretty lopsided trades — we’re coming up to the one-year anniversary of his jaw-dropping Rafael Devers’ trade — but acquiring Contreras from the Cardinals isn’t one of them. Since Contreras joined the Red Sox in December, he leads the offense in batting average, home runs, RBI, on-base percentage, slugging, OPS, and walks. The Red Sox gave up three pitching prospects in the deal for Contreras, with the biggest piece being right-hander Hunter Dobbins for St. Louis. Breslow acquired Contreras for the right-handed pop from his bat, and he’s become a stabilizing, veteran force in an otherwise young and unproven Red Sox lineup. “We need to make sure we get our house in order,” Breslow said in the visitor’s dugout at Yankee Stadium on Friday. “We need to play better, and we need to win more games. … The first thing is to continue to build on the progress we’ve seen offensively over the last month.” Without Contreras, the Red Sox offense would be unwatchable right now. Even with his help, Boston is ranked 25th in wRC+ (91), 26th in slugging (.378), 25th in OPS (.694), and 27th in walk percentage (7.9%). Contreras has days when he can carry the team, like he did in Friday’s win. But even on Sunday, he was the only Red Sox hitter to put a run on the board when he lined an RBI single to left field, which extended his on-base streak to 18 games. Contreras is doing his job. What about everyone else? 3) How Is Judge’s Bat Still Getting Action? While Judge is catching bench splinters, his bat is still getting plenty of action. Jazz Chisholm Jr. used Judge’s bat to hit a three-run home run in the eighth inning of the Yankees’ 6-1 win over the Red Sox on Sunday. That was Chisholm’s second time using Judge’s bat; he tore his oblique the first time he used it, on April 29, 2025, and missed five weeks on the injured list. On Sunday, Chisholm knew not to swing as hard. “Sometimes you need a little bit more weight,” Chisholm said. “And a little bit less on your swing.” Did Chisholm ask Judge’s permission before using his bat? “Definitely didn’t ask him,” Chisholm said. “You know, it’s like a big brother, little brother thing.” The Yankees are in the early days of navigating life without Judge, who went on the injured list Friday with a stress fracture on the first rib on his right side. He’s expected to miss two months recovering from the fracture, waiting for the bone to heal before he can begin swinging again. The results have been a mixed bag, with the Yankees going 2-3 in the five games they’ve played without Judge anchoring the lineup. But there are reasons for optimism from the offense. Ben Rice homered off Red Sox veteran right Sonny Gray on Friday, hours after Judge was placed on the IL, to become the team leader in homers with 18 this season. Trent Grisham, batting fifth instead of leading off on Sunday, had an excellent day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with an RBI single in the eighth. Cody Bellinger mashed his ninth home run of the year on Sunday with a tie-breaking solo shot to right. Paul Goldschmidt continued to pile on hits against left-handers. And after Amed Rosario and Grisham swiped a bag each in the eighth inning Sunday, the Yankees are tied with the Guardians for the most stolen bases (64) in the American League. “I think this offense is capable of a lot more than people realize,” Jones said. “I think there’s a lot of speed on this team. There’s a lot of different ways to win baseball games. And the guys are super close. All the position players are super tight-knit. Everybody’s rooting for each other. It’s such a solid unit that it’s like, obviously it sucks to have the captain go down. But I truly believe that the people in this room are more than enough to pull together wins and play good baseball without him.” 4. Suárez Outduels Schlittler Red Sox left-hander Ranger Suárez and Yankees right-hander Cam Schlittler engaged in a good, old-fashioned pitcher’s duel on Sunday, though it didn’t go the distance. Schlittler gave up a run in the fifth, while Suárez threw 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball. Since April 11, Suárez has gone 2-2 with a 2.38 ERA over his last 10 starts. The southpaw has allowed one run or fewer in seven of those 10 outings. It’s too bad his bullpen couldn’t hold a 1-1 tied game in eighth inning. Besides a couple of clunkers against Atlanta and Cleveland this month, Suárez has been solid on the mound in the absence of injured ace Garrett Crochet. “Your focus as a starter is to get deep into the games,” Suárez said after his outing on Sunday. “It was good to be out there and throw into the seventh inning. I know the past few starts haven’t been that long, but that’s what you strive for as a pitcher.” There will always be a little extra juice when Cam Schlittler takes the mound against the Red Sox, and on Sunday he was under pressure to bounce back. Schlittler recorded the worst start of his career his last time out, coughing up five runs (four earned) over 4 ⅓ innings against Cleveland last week. Against the Red Sox, his favorite childhood team, Schlittler’s fastball velocity recovered and he looked more like himself. It helped that the Red Sox are the worst team in baseball against cutters, which he used nearly as much as his four-seam fastball to blow past batters in the series finale. Schlittler cemented himself in Yankees-Red Sox rivalry lore when he gave it some new ammo last October. He pitched eight scoreless innings and recorded 12 strikeouts in Game 3 of the 2025 Wild Card Series to eliminate the Red Sox from the playoffs. After that shutout start, Schlittler revealed he was extra motivated to silence Boston because the Weymouth, Massachusetts native had been receiving inappropriate messages from Red Sox fans, comments that he said crossed a line. He used his frustration as fuel for the game. “The velo was there, and the movement was a little better,” Schlittler said of his performance against the Red Sox on Sunday. “I was still a little sloppy, but definitely better than last week and that’s all I can really take from that.” 4 ½. What’s Next? The Yankees and Red Sox will meet again in just a couple of weeks, when Boston hosts New York for a four-game series beginning June 25 at Fenway Park. The Red Sox come back to the Bronx at the end of August for what will unexpectedly be another four-game series. Saturday’s postponed game was moved to August 29 as part of a split doubleheader at Yankee Stadium.