When the tickets were scored in the belly of a bone-hurting winter, buyers believed this weekend’s Red Sox-Yankees series in The Bronx would be played between teams fighting each other for AL East supremacy.
The Red Sox were the defending World Series champions for the third time in a decade, and the Yankees spent close to $500 million after not making the postseason in 2013 and watching Robinson Cano flee for Seattle.
So, the thoughts of three games across the final weekend in June when the AL East pennant race would take shape were supposed to get baseball fans through weeks of single-digit temperatures.
Instead the blood rivals are several layers behind the front-running Blue Jays going into Friday night’s game at Yankee Stadium.
Not since 1993, the year after Derek Jeter was drafted, has the postseason not included either the Red Sox or Yankees.
Of course, with a little more than three months remaining things can change, but when the struggling Vidal Nuno takes the mound tonight against a light-hitting Red Sox lineup, the Yankees and Red Sox will be on the outside of the playoff math in the division and wild-card races.
Going into the White Sox-Blue Jays game in Toronto on Thursday night the third-place Yankees (40-37) were 2 ½ games out of first and the fourth-running Red Sox (36-43) 7 ½ back. The Yankees were a game back in the wild-card picture; the Red Sox six.
Jeter, who has been a central figure in Red Sox-Yankees skirmishes for 19 years, said not to expect the weekend to turn into an Astros-Padres series.
“I think it will be pretty much the same,’’ Jeter said. “I don’t think it will be any different.’’
The Yankees and Red Sox have played seven games this season, with the Yankees winning five. Each team has suffered injuries and a lack of hitting from batters who are supposed to produce.
“We haven’t seen them in so long [April], but they have had their struggles just like us,’’ Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “They have had good streaks and bad streaks. They have lost some tough games just like we have. But we know they are extremely dangerous.’’
Just as Carlos Beltran and Brian McCann fight to live up to their reputation as run-producing hitters, Dustin Pedroia (a career .300 hitter) arrives in The Bronx batting a puzzling .265 and showing no signs of the power (four homers) that had him average 16 homers a season from 2008-12. David Ortiz has 18 homers and 49 RBIs, but the career .286 hitter is at .256. As a team, the Red Sox are batting .243 — 13th among AL teams and 10 points lower than the Yankees, who have been wildly inconsistent at the plate.
“I have said all along the middle of our order is the key to our success,’’ Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long said of Jacoby Ellsbury, Mark Teixeira, Beltran and McCann. “When we have gone on runs, it’s been the middle of the order that has done the damage.’’
So who is the better team?
According to an AL talent evaluator a narrow edge goes to the Red Sox.
“I go to their rotation, and I know [Clay] Buchholz is a big if, but they have [John] Lackey and [Jon] Lester, and the Yankees have [Masahiro] Tanaka,’’ the scout said. “The bullpens balance each other out, with a slight edge to the Red Sox because the Yankees are asking a lot out of [Adam] Warren and I am still leery of [Dellin] Betances. He has done very well so far, but he is a stiff-shoulder guy. It’s a long season and that’s a lot of stress on the shoulder. Can he make it to August and September?’’
Perhaps a better question is where will the Red Sox and Yankees be in late September when they meet on the last weekend of the season.