The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees historic rivalry entered a new era this past week. The two teams met for the first time in the 2018 season. The three game series consisted of a 14-1 Red Sox win on Tuesday, a 10-7 Yankees win on Wednesday, and a 6-3 Red Sox win on Thursday. This new era with younger fresh faces will soon re-ignite the fire in this age-old rivalry.

On Tuesday the Yankees’ bats struggled, hitting against the American League’s Cy Young Award runner-up Chris Sale, scoring one run on ten hits. Their one run came off a solo home run by Aaron Judge in the fifth inning. The Red Sox had a slower start scoring one run in the first inning, three in the second inning, and one in the fourth inning. They then came back scoring nine runs in the sixth inning, consisting of a two run double by J.D. Martinez, a sacrifice fly by Rafael Devers scoring one run, Christian Vazquez got on base on an error scoring one run, Brock Holt walked loading the bases. Mookie Betts then launched a line drive grand slam over the green monster scoring four runs, to make it 14-1.The winning Pitcher was Chris Sale (1-0) the losing Pitcher was Luis Severino (2-1).

On Wednesday the two teams met again with bad blood after the previous night’s Red Sox beat down on the Yankees, with two bench clearing fights sparking a fresh flame in the rivalry. The Yankees came out of the gate hot, scoring four runs in the first inning, consisting of a Giancarlo Stanton triple and a Gary Sanchez home run. In the bottom of the first inning Hanley Ramirez then came up to bat and hit a screaming fly ball out over the left field wall to bring the Yankees lead down to three. In the third inning Yankees designated hitter Tyler Austin made a questionable slide into shortstop Brock Holt, causing the two to exchange a few words and initiating the benches and bullpens to run towards the two of them.

Then in the top of the fourth Gary Sanchez came up again and homered, scoring two more to put the score at 7-1 Yankees. In the fifth inning the Red Sox bats seemed to be coming alive with Mookie Betts double scoring Jackie Bradley Jr., and a J.D. Martinez grand slam to put the score at 8-5 Yankees. In the sixth inning the Yankees scored two more runs making it 10-6. In the seventh inning tempers flared when Red Sox pitcher Joe Kelly threw inside to Tyler Austin, supposedly just trying to get him to back off the plate, but the next pitch Kelly hit Austin in the back with a 98mph fastball causing Austin to charge the mound. The benches cleared once again and three players and  coaches were ejected including Pitcher Joe Kelly, designated hitter Tyler Austin, Yankees third base coach Phil Nevin, and Yankees relief pitcher Tommy Kahnle. The Yankees won by a score of 10-7. The winning pitcher was Masahiro Tanaka (2-1) the losing Pitcher was David Price (1-1).

On Wednesday the two teams had calmed down a bit and were ready for the third game of the series. The Red Sox scored four runs in the second and two in the third. Red Sox pitcher Rick Porcello flirted with a no-hitter up into the seventh inning until Aaron Judge came to bat and launched a double in to the center field triangle. The Yankees would fail to score until the ninth inning, only putting up three runs. The winning pitcher was Rick Porcello (3-0) and the losing pitcher was Sonny Gray (1-1) Craig Kimbrel was credited with the save (4).

After this first three-game series we will have to see whether or not these two teams can move past this, or look for more retaliation later this season.