The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox meet in Major League Baseball postseason play for the seventh time, squaring off in a best-of-three American League Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium. Major League Baseball history records their postseason rivalry as dead-even with three series victories apiece across a storied matchup that has defined the American League East for generations.
Records show that because both franchises compete in the American League, they have never met in a World Series. Instead, their previous six postseason clashes consist of three American League Championship Series, one American League Divisional Series, and two Wild Card encounters.
The postseason rivalry opened in the 1999 American League Championship Series. The Yankees defeated the Red Sox four games to one before sweeping the Atlanta Braves in the World Series to claim a championship title.
Four years later, the clubs met again in the 2003 ALCS. The series extended to a decisive seventh game, where Aaron Boone hit an 11th-inning walk-off home run off Tim Wakefield to secure a 4-3 series victory for New York.
The momentum shifted dramatically in the 2004 ALCS. The Yankees jumped to a 3-0 series lead before the Red Sox orchestrated an unprecedented comeback, winning four consecutive games to become the first team in MLB history to erase a 3-0 postseason deficit. Boston advanced to win the World Series, ending an 86-year championship drought often referred to as the Curse of the Bambino.
Following a 14-year postseason hiatus between the two rivals, the Red Sox and Yankees met in the 2018 American League Divisional Series. Boston claimed the series three games to one, highlighted by a 16-1 victory in Game 3, on their path to another World Series title.
As the postseason format evolved, the rivals met in single-elimination and expanded series formats. In the 2021 American League Wild Card Game played at Fenway Park under the single-elimination format, the Red Sox defeated the Yankees 6-2. Most recently, the teams clashed in the 2025 American League Wild Card Series under the current best-of-three format. After Boston won the opening game, New York responded with consecutive victories to take the series 2-1.
During the regular season preceding this Wild Card meeting, the Yankees won the head-to-head season series 7-6 in a tightly contested schedule.
