Yankees: Facing Red Sox while they’re tanking is emotional warfare

The Yankees are about to play the Red Sox, needing every win while Boston is tanking. This feels gross.

Yankees-Red Sox in an empty Fenway Park in the middle of September. We want the Red Sox to lose. The Red Sox want to lose! This … this is going to be zero fun.

The mental and emotional calculus my choke-addled brain is going to be experiencing this weekend will be the opposite of joyous, and there’s a better chance I shut my phone off, head to an apple orchard, and fall face down into a pile of orange leaves than watch all 27-ish innings.

Because even when the Boston Red Sox are so, so, so, so bad, they still find a way to break you.

Entering this weekend’s three-game set, the Yanks will be within striking distance of a postseason berth, and every victory will be precious, with second place in the AL East very much up for grabs. The Red Sox will be precariously close to the No. 1 overall pick — percentage points separate them from the Pirates, Rangers and Diamondbacks, with two pitching prizes waiting at the top of the draft in Vanderbilt’s Kumar Rocker and Jack (Son of Al) Leiter.

So, let me make things very clear: YES, I will be unequivocally rooting for a Yankees sweep and a ridiculous 10-0 record against the Sox in 2020. NO, I will not enjoy one SECOND of Boston claiming this was their plan all along.

You don’t get to do both, Sox Nation. You don’t get to spend all summer telling me that Mookie Betts had to go, and Alex Verdugo would be just as good, and the Sox were right there, then spend all fall telling me you always knew this team was bad and needed a total reboot. You don’t get to gloat your losses, you teflon city.

This was not Chaim Bloom’s “plan.” Chaim Bloom didn’t “plan” to lose his top two starters to injury and disease when he took the reins here. Sometimes, plans fail. It’s OK to fail sometimes. Shh, shh, it’s OK. Your basketball team is in the Eastern Conference Finals and your football team signed the 2015 MVP QB for $18. It’s OK.

But all of this never-ceasing Boston braggadocio has brought us to this very unpleasant point. The Yankees, jockeying for playoff position, are going to be mocked by Red Sox fans whether they win or lose.

Somehow, Rob Manfred did this to us, too. He was supposed to institute his own draft order, blending 2019 and 2020 records in the interest of fairness. Nope. He did not do that, and now Boston can taste it.

I vow not to let the Boston Tank Machine ruin a good time, if the Yankees do happen to pull out a couple of victories over a suddenly-surging offense in Beantown. I also vow not to take Yankees losses helping the tank as a “silver lining” — you can’t bring that type of losing mentality to the arena. Can’t even acknowledge it.

But, perhaps most importantly, I vow not to listen to the Twitter mob either way.

Mute your haters, folks. Mute them into oblivion. And go enjoy that orchard.

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