Red Sox and Yankees meet in high-profile Wild Card Series starting Tuesday

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NEW YORK (AP) — Aaron Judge preferred to think ahead about the Yankees' Wild Card Series against Boston and not dwell on any of the losses that cost New York a second straight AL East title.

“The games in March, April are just as important as the ones — game 162 — so nothing we can do about it now besides turn the page and get locked in on October," the New York captain said.

Despite beating the Baltimore Orioles 3-2 on Sunday to finish the season with an eight-game winning streak and a 94-68 record identical to last year's mark, the Yankees lost out on the division championship to Toronto. The Blue Jays also were 94-68 and held the tiebreaker because they won the season series 8-5.

New York will host the Red Sox in a best-of-three playoff series starting Tuesday, with all three games in the Bronx. The winner advances to a Division Series opening in Toronto next weekend.

“Yankees-Boston is going to be awesome every time of the year and now even more," Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez said. "Our goal is get out of there in two games and bring the postseason back here in Fenway."

New York's Max Fried (19-5) and Boston's Garrett Crochet (18-5) start the opener in a matchup of top lefties.

“It's such a historic rivalry, so it’ll be a fun series to be a part of,” said the Yankees' Ben Rice, whose pair of solo homers Sunday included a go-ahead drive in the eighth inning.

Boston went 9-4 against the Yankees this season, including 5-2 in the Bronx. Crochet was 3-0 with a 3.29 ERA against New York, striking out 39 and walking four in 27 1/3 innings.

“One of the game's best, obviously, and just turned in a phenomenal season,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve seen him a few times. He’s had success against us. We’ve dinged him a little bit, too, and hopefully that familiarity serves us well going in Tuesday.”

Even before the matchup was locked in, fans at Fenway Park started chanting “Yankees suck!” in the late innings of Boston's 4-3 win over Detroit. The second-place Yankees earned home field for all three games because of a better record than the third-place Red Sox (89-73).

All three games are at night, and Yankee Stadium is likely to be boisterous.

“We got a rowdy crowd out there, a rowdy group that has been behind us all year long," Judge said. "Even in our tough times in the summer, they still were showing out numbers supporting us, so they’re definitely going to be excited for a Yankees-Red Sox postseason matchup.”

Boston was 30-35 through late May before starting to turn around its season with a six-game winning streak that included a three-game sweep in the Bronx. The Red Sox went 59-38 following the slow start.

New York and Boston have split 24 postseason games. The Yankees won the 1999 and 2003 AL Championship Series (the latter on Boone's 11th-inning walk-off homer against Tim Wakefield), and the Red Sox won the 2004 ALCS, 2018 Division Series and 2021 wild-card game.

"It’s New York against Boston,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It’s going to be big.”

Carlos Rodón (18-9) will start Game 2 for the Yankees and rookie Cam Schlittler (4-3) is likely in Game 3. Boston will start Brayan Bello (11-9) in the second game and probably Lucas Giolito (10-4) in Game 3.

New York started the season 35-20, slumped during a 25-34 stretch, then closed 34-14.

“We just started to come together and realize our potential as a group. I think we got a little bit settled down in the bullpen,” Boone said. “A month and a half ago we were teetering on, when it wasn’t going great, even being out of the picture a little bit, so to right the ship and then really solidify our position and then have a real shot at the East here all the way to the last day, hopefully is something that serves us well, has kept us sharp, has kept us really locked in.”

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