Yankees vs Red Sox LIVE updates: Game 1 lineups, predictions for MLB playoffs

NEW YORK — The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are meeting in the playoffs for just the seventh time. It only feels like the 70th. Perhaps that's because the stakes always feel a little higher when these ancient rivals meet. And in three of their six previous playoff meetings – 1999, 2004 and 2018 – the winner has gone on to win the World Series.

That feels a little bit like a stretch this season. The winner of this American League best-of-three wild-card series, beginning Tuesday, Sept. 29, advances to face the AL East champion Tampa Bay Rays. Then, the AL championship series. And then, with a lot of luck along the way, the World Series.

That's not to say this is an undercard of pretenders. The Yankees (93-68) and Red Sox (87-75) have been locked into their Nos. 4-5 seeds for quite some time, the Red Sox needing a startling 21-4 July to overcome a grim beginning.

Left-hander Payton Tolle will start for Boston, hoping to replicate exactly what his counterpart, Cam Schlittler, did for New York last year: dominate the archrivals as a rookie. That task will be made a little easier minus Aaron Judge, expectedly…

Original source: https://www.usatoday.com/sports/