There used to be a time when Red Sox-Yankees in early June would have the entire sport on pause. Not this one. The Sox are bad, the Yankees are without Aaron Judge, and the people paid to care about this rivalry are openly admitting the magic isn't there.
Carrabis diagnosed the mood in the Bronx before the lineups even turned over.
This is the least a Red Sox-Yankees series has felt like a Red Sox-Yankees series in a very long time. Red Sox fans are depressed because the team sucks. Yankee fans are depressed because of the Aaron Judge injury. Blah.
And yet — somehow — the actual game turned into a track meet. Ben Rice, who has quietly turned into one of the more annoying outs in the American League, ran into one off Garrett Crochet for his 18th of the year. 377 feet, 96.9 off the bat, and even the Sox die-hards in the Barstool group chat had to tip the cap.
Rice's 18th left the yard with MVP-race volume attached to it.
Carrabis, who has been a Rice skeptic from day one, basically waved the white flag in real time. When the loudest Red Sox voice in the company is publicly conceding a Yankees first baseman is the real deal, that's the ballgame on the discourse.
A grudging admission from a guy who spent months pumping the brakes on the Rice hype.
Boston punched back, because of course they did. Andruw Monasterio absolutely obliterated a 97 mph heater from Ryan Weathers, and then WC40 followed it up with a second-deck shot to put the Sox back in front 3-2. For one inning, it actually felt like a rivalry game.
Contreras into the upper tank off Weathers to flip the lead back to Boston.
Then it got weird again. Spencer Jones got a look, Hubbs flagged a quality at-bat, and the lineup card started feeling more like a September call-up showcase than a Sox-Yankees series. Which, honestly, tracks. Judge is hurt, the Sox stink, and the most engaged people watching are the ones contractually obligated to. Maybe that's the rivalry now — two fanbases sharing the same sigh.