God bless Cam Schlittler and his one-man crusade to reinvigorate the rivalry between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Now, all he needs is someone to fight back.
Schlittler is scheduled to be the Yankees starter in Tuesday’s first game of the best-of-three American League wild-card series, looking to build on an AL Cy Young award-worthy season with a repeat of that memorable eight-inning, 12-strikeout shutout in the deciding game of last year’s wild-card series against the Red Sox. He owns the Red Sox, with a 0.74 ERA and 27 strikeouts in four regular-season starts, too.
The fact is, you’d be hard-pressed to make the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry one of the top three in the game. The Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays mix it up with the Yankees more than the Red Sox, and fans beat the hell out of each other routinely in the National League West between the Giants, Dodgers and Padres. It’s been a while since Pedro Martinez body-slammed Don Zimmer, you know?
But Schlittler, a native of Walpole, Mass., and childhood Red Sox fan, is trying. After last year’s win, he took to social media and posted: ‘Drinking that Dirty Water,’ a reference to a hashtag used by the Red Sox referring to a song by Boston-based garage punk band ‘The Standells’ that went through a renaissance during the Red Sox run of success in recent seasons. Might as well stand in the middle of Barrack Street and yell: ‘You know, the Tragically Hip weren’t all that.”
Even with injuries, the fact their post-season fates were settled for a while allowed managers Aaron Boone and Chad Tracy to get their ducks lined up. The Yankees averaged almost a run per game less without Aaron Judge in the lineup this year, and a calf strain means his utility will be in doubt even if he plays. Garrett Crochet is a question mark for the Red Sox, but a bigger issue will be the status of Willson Contreras’s wrist.
In the other AL series, the wild-card Chicago White Sox will continue a remarkable turnaround that saw them become the first team in Major League history to make the playoffs after consecutive 100-loss seasons, taking on the Houston Astros, the first team to win a division title with a .500 record in a 162-game season and a club with a run differential of minus-32, whose manager is going to be replaced in the winter. Woof.
Here, then, are six to watch in the AL wild-card series:
Catch all the 2026 MLB post-season action on Sportsnet and Sportsnet+, and view the full schedule here.
• Wilyer Abreu, RF, Red Sox:Abreu went hitless in last season’s wild-card series and was part of a lineup that scored the fewest runs in the final month of the Major League season. But this is a hunch based on the fact that neither of these teams has really been under the cosh lately, plus the idea that Abreu’s three doubles and a homer in six games at Yankee Stadium means something after going without an extra-base hit in 10 previous trips to the Bronx. Although his quality of contact and pull rate have taken a tumble in September, he’s still been clutch for the Red Sox in the second half and finished the year leading MLB outfielders in defensive runs saved. Given the Yankees’ propensity for boneheadedness, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see Abreu’s arm record an important out. Or two.
•George Lombard Jr., SS, Yankees: He’s been a quietly consistent contributor down the stretch – slugging four homers in his last eight games, in the process becoming the second-youngest Yankee to hit a go-ahead HR in the eighth inning or later (Mickey Mantle is the youngest), but as is so often the case with the Yankees, it will be his sense of the moment defensively that will draw scrutiny. The Yankees are usually messy when the playoffs roll around, and a three-game series offers limited redemptive opportunities. We’ll spare the whole Derek Jeter post-season reputation stuff that will forever hang over Yankee shortstops. For now.
• Isaac Paredes, 3B, Astros: Allow me to explain. It wasn’t the most difficult final two-week schedule in baseball history, but the Astros beat the snot out of the Athletics on the final weekend to win the moribund AL West. And Yordan Alvarez, who should be a runaway Most Valuable Player, set the tone by going 17-for-44 (.386) with three home runs and four doubles. He is, of course, one of the best post-season hitters of this generation and has had good series even when teams seem set to pitch around him. Still, we’re going to be keeping an eye on Paredes, who hits behind Alvarez and posted a .999 OPS in September with a .291 average and eight homers. He was among the best hitters in MLB in the final month — better even than Alvarez — and reached base in 22 of the team’s final 24 games. His 46 two-out RBI led the Majors, and he was at the top in pitches per plate appearance.
• Tristan Peters, CF, White Sox: OK, I’ll readily admit a bias here because our hometowns are seven kilometres apart. But Peters is truly one of the best stories in the Majors: a 3.6 WAR, first-time all-star who was acquired for cash from the Tampa Bay Rays and who was traded three times before making his four-game MLB debut in 2025. The White Sox lineup is a bit of a puzzle heading into the post-season: they are the only team with three 30-homer players and the only team with three regulars with at least a 110 OPS-plus — one of whom is Peters — yet since winning AL Rookie of the Month in August, he’s hit just .194, joining Munetaka Murakami and Colson Montgomery (.154 and .155 since August) as regulars who seem to be on fumes. Still, the AL Central has provided odd post-season heroes in the past – think David Fry’s 2024 post-season for the Cleveland Guardians – and Peters seems form-fitted: he is the only player in history to manage in the same season to hit for the cycle, have a walk-off homer and grand slam, post a six-run game, reach base six times in a game and hit a homer in five consecutive games. Phew. He had a Ruthian run of games en route to being named August’s rookie of the month, joining the Babe as the only players to post a run of five consecutive games in which he homered in every game with multiple walks and doubles while accumulating 10 hits and stealing a base.
• Grant Taylor, RP, White Sox: No other MLB manager has asked his relievers to give him more than an inning as often as Will Venables, and Taylor has turned in 31 of the 214 appearances of 1 1/3 innings or more – including six consecutive as the White Sox nailed down a post-season berth. Is it catching up to him? He has allowed a run in four of his last seven games with six walks, a far cry from a dominant 16-game scoreless streak in the summer. His 12-to-6 curveball grades out as the third-best in baseball in run value, and he’s made it even better by utilizing his fastball up in the zone more frequently. Other than Alvarez, the Astros haven’t handled the curve all that well.
• Payton Tolle, SP, Red Sox: Rookie manager Chad Tracy will hand the ball to a rookie starter for Game 1 and, well, why the hell not? Been a while since the Red Sox have been as easy to like as this particular group, who have written quite a story when you consider the tire fire they were the first time they rolled through Toronto, with Tracy having just replaced Alex Cora and some of his coaching staff still getting connecting flights to get to the Rogers Centre from minor league cities. Tolle’s a likable dude with three murderous fastballs who struck out 18 and allowed one run and four hits in two outings against the Yankees this season. The catch? Both of those games were at Fenway Park, although Tolle has put up better numbers on the road and has given up one run or fewer in four of his final eight starts. This is a short series between two teams with major health issues, and it’s tough to look past a rookie on the road at Yankee Stadium making his start against the Cy Young favourite.
JEFF BLAIR’S PICKS: Red Sox defeat Yankees 2-0; White Sox defeat Astros 2-1.
