Yankees face ultimate mental test heading into Red Sox series

Time and time again, when it matters, the modern New York Yankees fail major tests against their chief rivals. Whether it’s starting 0-7 against the Boston Red Sox and then losing the AL Wild Card Game at Fenway in 2021, or not leading for a single inning against the Houston Astros in 2022, this type of shortcoming has been embedded in the Yankees’ DNA since 2018.

Somehow, MLB always manages to keep this narrative going with these perfect little pockets on the Yankees’ schedule … but the Yankees allow it to persist by largely not delivering. Don’t get us wrong, they manage to triumph here and there, but it’s never resounding enough. And even if it is, they blow it in the postseason.

But this weekend’s series against the Red Sox needs to serve a stern reminder to the few remaining scarred Yankees actually in the lineup — Aaron Judge, DJ LeMahieu, Aaron Hicks, Gleyber Torres — that this could serve as a momentous narrative shifter.

Either that or … it’ll be a deflating failure of epic proportions. The Yankees’ current 7-13 slide over their last 20 games has saw them lose control of the top of the AL, and if it weren’t for the Blue Jays and Rays tripping over their own shoelaces every night, the division might’ve been in a similar boat.

The Red Sox, especially in games at Fenway Park, have been a premier source of the modern Yankees’ struggles. It’s even happened as early as this year! That unforgivable extra-innings loss at Boston on July 9 started the team’s current spiral, and the Sunday Night Baseball embarrassment the next day helped snowball it.

What timely reminder for the 2004 ALCS failure, too. Thanks, ESPN!

The Yankees face a tough mental test against the Red Sox this weekend

New York has the edge over Boston this year, but somehow the four losses hurt a lot more than the six wins helped. That’s frequently the case when you lose to your most hated rival, but when pedestrian players such as Alex Verdugo, Christian Vazquez and Bobby Dalbec were the ones who kicked your a– in those games, you can’t help but want to shatter the nearest lamp.

That’s just the thing right there, too. The Red Sox, no matter how bad they truly are, always come to play against the Yankees. And they have below-average players over-perform in the biggest moments. The same cannot be said for New York. And the biggest Red Sox killer in Giancarlo Stanton won’t be available for this series.

The annoying part is that the Yankees fold like a lawn chair in situations like this more often than not even when they’re fully healthy. Now, they’ll enter Fenway as hobbled as they’ve been this year for three games that won’t feature Gerrit Cole or Nestor Cortes.

Aaron Judge has been the Yankees far-and-away MVP, but he’s downright bad against the Sox. In 75 career games, he’s hitting just .244 with an .821 OPS, 18 homers, 40 RBI and 90 strikeouts. He’s even worse at Fenway, too (.181 AVG, .604 OPS, 5 homers, 12 RBI in 33 games).

All because he played “New York, New York” on that boombox back in 2018 after winning Game 2 of the ALDS? This is the karmic return?

If there was any time for the Yankees to make a statement and dream of beginning to shift the narrative of their interminable struggles when placed in the spotlight against their chief competition … it’s right now.

The Yankees now face a stretch of 12 games against the Red Sox, Blue Jays, Rays and Mets over the next couple of weeks as they play their worst baseball of the season. The least they could do is beat up on one of the league’s worst pitching staffs and floundering offense (Boston has dropped to 55-58 after going 7-12 following the All-Star break).

You’d hope, but watch Tommy Pham become a folk hero by Saturday night. The Yankees can either take care of business against a lesser team and not use any injury excuses or give Red Sox fans a reason to care about their disgraceful 2022 campaign.

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