The Red Sox haven't been to the postseason was in 2021, when they eliminated the Yankees in a one-game wild card, as per the playoff design then.

Meanwhile, Max Scherzer turned in yet another strong start for the Blue Jays as he rounds into form late in the year. He went six innings, allowing just a single run in the bottom of the second when he loaded the bases with no outs but managed to only get dinged on an Isiah Kiner-Falefa groundout that moved the runners up.

According to Bryan Hoch of MLB .com, that makes the Yankees the first team in Major League Baseball history with multiple nine-homer games, period. The fact that they did so twice in the same season is the type of baseball oddity that makes the game so fun to watch.

Of course neither the Yankees nor the Red Sox are in first place as they begin a four-game series on Thursday night at the Stadium. Somehow this still feels like the beginning of an abbreviated

Call it the Ea$t division. Following Rob Manfred’s recent comments about MLB expansion that would lean into Eastern and Western conferences, one often-circulated proposed four-team division would be a heavyweight quartet featuring the Yankees, Mets, Phillies and Red Sox.

After a lengthy rain delay, Giancarlo Stanton hit two home runs and the Yankees matched a franchise record with nine long balls Tuesday night in a convincing 13-3 victory over the Rays, an effort the slugger labeled as "awesome to see.

The Yankees enter Tuesday five games back of the Toronto Blue Jays in the American League East, and tied with the Seattle Mariners and the Boston Red Sox atop the AL Wild Card standings.

Ahead of the matchup, manager Aaron Boone met with the media and shared several key updates—most notably on superstar Aaron Judge, who recently returned from an IL stint after tweaking his elbow while throwing from the outfield.