Yankees-Red Sox

"The Rivalry": New York and Boston, for over 120 seasons.

The Red Sox–Yankees rivalry is a Major League Baseball rivalry between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees. Both teams have competed in the American League for over 120 seasons, and it is considered by many to be the fiercest rivalry in American sports.

Quick Facts

Teams: New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox
League: American League
Nickname: The Rivalry
Alcs meetings: 3 (Yankees won 2, Red Sox 1)
Latest postseason meeting: 2025 American League Wild Card Series (Yankees won)

Facts from the source article.

Background

Nicknamed "The Rivalry" by some. The 1919 sale of star Red Sox player Babe Ruth to the Yankees popularized one of its best-known aspects, a superstition known as the "Curse of the Bambino", attributed to Boston's 86-year World Series drought, which began upon Ruth's sale to New York. When the Red Sox broke the curse by winning the 2004 World Series, they defeated the Yankees in the ALCS after overcoming a 3–0 deficit, the only time in American baseball history that a team has come back from a 3–0 deficit to win a series.

The teams have faced each other three times in the ALCS, the Yankees winning twice and the Red Sox once. They have met once in the American League Division Series, Boston winning 3–1 in a series that included a 16–1 Red Sox win in Game 3 at Yankee Stadium, the largest margin of defeat in a postseason game in the Yankees' history. The Red Sox beat the Yankees in the 2021 American League Wild Card Game, and the Yankees beat the Red Sox in the 2025 American League Wild Card Series.

Did You Know?

The largest margin of defeat in a Yankees postseason game is a 16–1 loss to the Red Sox, in Game 3 of their only ALDS meeting, at Yankee Stadium.
Yankees–Red Sox games are some of the most-watched MLB games each season.