One of the greatest rivalries in sports will add a new chapter this week when the Boston Red Sox visit the New York Yankees for a best-of-three MLB postseason series in the Bronx.
Both teams are expected to throw their aces in Game 1 on Tuesday night with Max Fried getting the ball for the Yankees and the Red Sox countering with Garrett Crochet. In 32 starts this season, Crochet went 18-5 with a 2.59 ERA, 255 strikeouts and a 1.028 WHIP.
Yankees first baseman Paul Goldschmidt has not fared well against Crochet, going 2-15 against the lefty in 16 career plate appearances.
“He's a great pitcher,” Goldschmidt said of the likely Cy Young runner-up, via Bryan Hoch of MLB.com. “He just executes so well. When he makes a mistake, you have to capitalize on it. You have to put that ball in play, not foul it off or not take it, because he just doesn't make that many.”
Crochet faced the Yankees four times in 2025, allowing 20 hits in 27.1 innings with 36 strikeouts. He had a 3.28 ERA against New York, winning all three of his decisions.
The Yankees will rely on a resurgent Max Fried
While Crochet's season-long numbers are better than Fried's (2.86 ERA, 189 SO, 1.101 WHIP), the Yankees ace is peaking at the right time. After a rough midseason stretch, Fried has a 1.55 ERA in his last eight starts, including two against the Red Sox.
In those two games, Fried has thrown 11.1 innings, allowing two runs with 13 strikeouts.
Fried credits that first start against the Red Sox for helping him get “back to myself, mixing pitches, trying to make pitches – and then everything sort of fell in line,” according to Hoch. He had previously been dealing with a blister on his left hand that kept him from performing at his peak.
“He’s everything you’d want from a guy at the top of your rotation,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said after Fried's last start against the Chicago White Sox. “We couldn’t have asked for more. He’s such a pro, so talented, such a great teammate and such an important part now of our pitching culture here.”
While pitcher wins went out of vogue as a stat long ago, his 19 in his first year in New York are tied for the most by any Yankee in the last 15 seasons.
