Yankees: 5 moments from 2021 that should reignite rivalry with Red Sox

3. Fan throwing a baseball at Alex Verdugo

Not condoning this one bit! But fans always try to inject themselves into rivalries and this unacceptable behavior surely fanned the flames.

On July 18, the game at Yankee Stadium between the two rivals was abruptly stopped when a fan threw a baseball and hit Verdugo in the back. Chaos. What motivated this unacceptable behavior is unclear (because the act was allegedly committed by a Mets fan?) but the suspect was ejected from the game and banned from every MLB ballpark.

Nonetheless, this should’ve given the Red Sox every reason in existence to want to embarrass the Yankees each following chance they got. And they got off to a nice start in the following four-game set when they won the aforementioned game against German and took Chad Green to the woodshed in another one the Yankees blew on that Thursday night.

Verdugo is a fiery and outspoken personality, too, and he’ll be with the Sox for quite some time given his situation under team control following the Mookie Betts trade. We can only hope he carries this resentment towards the Yankees whenever he takes the field against them.

And we eternally hope he doesn’t deliver. We just want the stakes higher and the trash talk to thrive.