On June 24, the lowly Rockies rallied to score five runs between the seventh and eighth innings to beat the Red Sox and take two of three at Coors Field. 

That left the Red Sox, at 32-46, with a better record than just one team in the majors — the 32-49 Rockies. Let’s just say the folks in Boston were not pleased. There were wide calls to fire head of baseball operations Craig Breslow, who had canned championship manager Alex Cora in April. There was anticipation of the Red Sox being sellers at the trade deadline. 

Then the Yankees came to Fenway Park and became co-conspirators in why Boston will be in The Bronx on Tuesday night. The Red Sox swept the Yankees four games to initiate a stunning before-and-after makeover — Boston went from winning 32 of its first 78 games to winning 32 of its next 37 games en route to the majors’ best record from that point forward. It was ultimately good enough to get Cora’s replacement, Chad Tracy, elevated from interim to full-time manager, but not good enough to overtake the Yankees. It did set up a best-of-three wild-card series for the second straight year, again all in The Bronx. 

So the Yankees had a chance to deliver close to a kill shot to the Red Sox in June, and now they will be fighting for their 2026 lives against Boston as the calendar flips to October.