NEW YORK — The Red Sox feel like a boxer that has been knocking down the champ again and again, yet no one thinks they can win the fight.
They’ve beat up on the Yankees all year winning nine of 13 regular-season meetings, then kept hearing they have no shot to win this week’s Wild Card Series.
The Yankees are home for every game, they have Aaron Judge, they had the better overall record, they went into the playoffs hot … blah, blah, blah.
“You’ve got to play the game. Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story said. “It’s not done on paper.”
Amen to that.
Look at the Red Sox now. Here they are up a game in this best of three after rallying Tuesday night for a 3-1 win at Yankee Stadium.
“That’s what like makes baseball fun,” Masataka Yoshida said after delivering the biggest hit of the game, a two-run single in the seventh that turned a 1-0 Yankees lead to 2-1 Red Sox. “Maybe we’re underdogs, but we’re going to come through and we’re going to keep going.”
Even though Vegas and most everyone else picked the Yankees in two or three, history now is with the Red Sox. Since Wild Card Series started in 2022, the team that has won the opener is 12-for-12 moving on to a Division Series.
“Hopefully we can continue that,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “We have a tough one (Wednesday) again.”
Game 1 was a tough one.
Anthony Volpe homered with two outs and nobody on facing Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet in the second inning for a 1-0 Yankees lead that stayed that way through six.
After All-Star left-hander Max Fried retired the Red Sox leadoff hitter in the Red Sox seventh, Yankees manager Aaron Boone went to his bullpen and the usually-reliable Luke Weaver immediately imploded.
A walk and double put two ducks on the pond, then Yoshida came off the bench to hit for Rob Refsnyder and slapped a two-run single to center.
The Red Sox added an insurance run in the ninth, then survived the Yankees loading the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the inning. Aroldis Chapman gave up three singles in a row, then retired the next three to put his former club on the brink of elimination.
“The job’s not done,” Story said.
No, but this was a very satisfying win for the Red Sox, who once again proved that they can handle the Yankees.
“We like to be the underdogs,” Red Sox catcher Carlos Narvaez said. “We’ve felt like we’ve been underdogs the whole year with all the ups and downs. We like that challenge. We embrace it.
“We showed up for Game 1 embracing that, we’ll show up for Game 2 embracing that.”
With the season on the line, the Yankees’ Game 2 starter will be Carlos Rodon, another All-Star left-hander. The Red Sox will go with Bryan Bello, a 26-year-old righty who has pitched to a 1.89 ERA in three starts against the Yanks this year.
“I expect the game to be just like this one,” Cora said.
If it’s another pitching duel that ends just like Game 1, the Red Sox will be off to Toronto for the next round and the Yankees will be KO’d like Apollo Creed in Rocky II.
“I think it is next-pitch mentality,” Red Sox third baseman Alex Bregman said. “You take it one game at a time, one pitch at a time.”
Whatever works, and it’s been working all year long for the Red Sox whenever they draw the Yankees.
“We’ve got to take care of business (in Game 2) and go from there,” Red Sox second baseman Nick Sogard said.