It’s setting up to be a special weekend at Fenway Park, as the Red Sox (81-66) host the Yankees (81-65) for a three-game series that could ultimately dictate where these two teams play each other once October rolls around.
The stakes are immense. The rivalry is red hot. This is why we watch.
The best rivalry in all of sports is all the way back.
Ahead of the series opener, manager Alex Cora met with the media for his regular pregame press conference.
Here were the highlights:
Question: “What’s going on with Wilyer Abreu?”
Alex Cora: “Talking to [manager of player development] Kiyoshi [Momose]. There's a few more things that he needs to do. Hopefully get him up to 90% as far as the effort, and when we get there, he will probably be back with us.”
Q: “Roman Anthony - anything beyond treatment yet?
AC: “No, just treatment.”
Q: “Do you have any idea of how you’ll be using Connelly Early and Payton Tolle moving forward?”
AC: “Ah yeah - we’ll decide Sunday. We’re actually talking about it. [Craig Breslow] will come down after batting practice and go over how we’re gonna use them. By Sunday, we’ll have an answer.
Q: “Does Kyle Harrison kind of fit in with those three?”
AC: “Yeah, those are the three.”
Q: “Obviously the roster is a lot different from the last time you guys met [the Yankees] in late September. What similarities do you see with them coming here this late in the season?”
AC: “Well, the last time in ’21, they came here, they kicked our ass, and then we played well in the Wild Card game. I remember they got to Nate [Eovaldi] on that Sunday night game, right? They hit like 5 homers and all that. So it wasn't as cool as iit was supposed to be.
“But I think just being around the city yesterday, everybody's excited. You know, it's Yankees-Red Sox, national TV on Sunday. So it should be fun. You know, the weather is feeling a lot better, right? It's not as ‘hot.’ It's in the 70s. It's beautiful. So it's Fenway Park against them. So we'll see what happens.”
Q: “Down the stretch here, these are all playoff games, to some degree. How do you balance winning every game with managing workloads, pitches, down the stretch of the season?”
AC: “You gotta be careful. One bad step can put you in a bad spot, you know? And I’m not talking standing wise, I’m talking about health. So just a lot of conversation with trainers, a lot of conversation with the players, and then we go from there. I think we are deeper pitching wise than obviously the last three years. We're in a good spot. We got our starters rolling this weekend, right? [Lucas Giolito], [Brayan] Bello and [Garrett] Crochet. Hopefully they go deep into the game, and then we can mix and match with them.”
Q: “Do you start treating these more like playoff games in September with how you manage guys?”
AC: “I think we've been - we try to win games, you know? That's the way to put it. And the game will dictate what we do. I think so far, the group has done an amazing job putting ourselves in this situation.”
Q: “What led to Brendan Bernardino being placed on the IL?”
AC: “Playing catch the last day in Sacramento, he felt something grab him below the shoulder. So he had an MRI yesterday. It was a strain, so we had to put him on the IL after that. It was right before the game. So he was unavailable.”
Q: “Anything new with Richard Fitts or Jordan Hicks?”
AC: “No, no - I mean, working out, Fitzy getting his strength back. Hicks, the same thing. I think Hicks is in play [to help down the stretch.. You know, I don't know about Fitzy.”
Q: “You mentioned earlier being out yesterday and people were excited about the series and stuff. What were you doing, and what were the interactions like?
AC: “Went to Legal Sea Foods for the first time in months, and two people offered to pay the check. I was like, ‘Wow, this is going well.’ And then we went to the Seaport, some of the coaches, Sam [Kennedy] was there, too, just to have fun. And you can tell that everybody's excited about the team, the weekend. And hopefully we can come through.”
First pitch for Friday’s game one between the Red Sox and Yankees is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. ET, with Lucas Giolito (10-3, 3.38) taking the mound for Boston. Luis Gil (3-1, 3.31 ERA) gets the start for New York.
The only local call of the game can be heard on 93.7 WEEI-FM in Boston and across the WEEI Red Sox Radio Network, as Friday’s telecast is streaming exclusively on Apple TV+.
*press conference questions and answers were edited for grammar only
Tom Carroll is a contributor for Roundtable, with boots-on-the-ground coverage of all things Boston sports. He's a digital content producer for WEEI.com, and a native of Lincoln, RI.