New York Yankees Mike Vaccaro Yankees need to put Red Sox out of their misery By Mike Vaccaro Published Sep. 30, 2026, 12:59 a.m. ET Willson Contreras strikes out swinging during the first inning of the Red Sox's 9-0 blowout loss to the Yankees in Game 1 of their AL wild-card series on Sept. 29, 2026 at the Stadium. Charles Wenzelberg / New York Post The Red Sox were a perfectly lovely baseball story for the middle two months of this baseball season. They will be referenced for decades to come, longer, because they fell into a hole 14 games south of .500, they got their manager fired, and they were fixing to hold a Flushing-style fire sale at the deadline.
Then started to win. Every day. Day after day. Then week after week.
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Their heels were backed up to the abyss, and instead they came back. It was inspiring, even if you are a Yankees fan and thus inclined to loathe every little thing they do. It looked for a while like they might never lose again. Except since the start of August the Red Sox have been exactly a .500 team. They didn’t hit at all in September. They are limping now, literally and figuratively. They are wounded.