The Boston Red Sox punched their postseason ticket a while back, but the seeding and matchup were technically unclear until the Red Sox beat the Cubs on Friday afternoon. Now it’s official: the Red Sox have the No. 5 seed and will face the No. 4 Yankees for a best-of-three series in the American League Wild Card in New York.
This is the matchup everyone had been expecting. In fact, the series is a rematch of the 2025 Wild Card, right down to the Yankees’ homefield advantage. After winning Game 1 last year, the Sox went down quietly.
Do-Over and Shot at Redemption
The Sox now have the do-over they wanted. To make the most of it, they will need to wake up the offense, which has gone largely quiet in the latter part of the regular season.
One question mark is whether Willson Contreras will be ready for Tuesday’s opener—or any of the Wild Card Series. Ahead of the last series of the regular season, he called his hit-by-pitch hand injury “really concerning.”
Though the Yankees won the 2026 season series against the Red Sox, 7-6, the Sox kicked off their historic summer surge by sweeping the Yanks over four games at Fenway Park. They went on to notch a 15-game winning streak, as well as the winningest month (21-4) in franchise history. However, in the final regular-season meeting between the two, the Yankees prevailed, 16-1.
Payton Tolle will be a big part of their shot at redemption. He got a taste of the postseason in 2025 as a reliever; he faced and retired one Yankees batter. In 2026, he will likely start either Game 1 or Game 2 and has a much more impressive resume this time around.
We will update this post with starting times when they are announced.
How to Watch and Listen
Game 1
Date: Tuesday, September 29
Start Time: TBD
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
Radio: ESPN Radio (local affiliates, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio)
Game 2
Date: Wednesday, September 30
Start Time: TBD
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
Radio: ESPN Radio (local affiliates, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio)
Game 3 (if necessary)
Date: Thursday, October 1
Start Time: TBD
Channel: NBC
Streaming: Peacock
Radio: ESPN Radio (local affiliates, SiriusXM, iHeartRadio)
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