The expressions “winner take it all” or “win or go home” become very popular in baseball in the United States when October arrives and the Major League Baseball postseason begins. Both refer to those all-or-nothing games in which the teams involved, after exchanging blows, must decide their fate in a single game.
These sudden-death episodes have appeared early in the 2025 playoffs, as three of the four wild-card series will go to the maximum possible after splitting the honors in the first games.
In these outcomes, the most attention will be in New York, where Yankees or Red Sox will put an end to their season. The classic par excellence of the Major Leagues has lived up to expectations after two very close games, defined by small details.
In the first game, Boston had the electric duo of Garrett Crochet and Aroldis Chapman, who silenced Yankee Stadium, and in the second, the Bombers’ relievers protected the narrow lead that Jazz Chisholm Jr. and Austin Wells manufactured.
It is time to define this head-to-head, in which a ticket to one of the American League Division Series is at stake, where Toronto is already waiting.
A familiar scenario for the Yankees
No team has played more sudden-death postseason games than the Yankees, who almost a century ago (in 1926) experienced the first of them during the World Series against the Cardinals. The memory of that experience is not the best, as they lost by a narrow score of 3-2 despite Babe Ruth hitting a home run.
After that first loss, the Yankees have played 30 other do-or-die playoff games and have a 15-15 record. If we look only at what has happened in the current century, the balance is also balanced, with eight wins and the same number of losses.
However, things have not gone well against Boston. In 2003, they succeeded in Game 7 of the Championship Series with a memorable home run by Aaron Boone (the Bombers’ current manager) against knuckleballer Tim Wakefield, but the following year the Red Sox got their revenge with a spectacular comeback after being down 0-3 in the playoff for the American League pennant.
It was a dramatic showdown that the Yankees seemed to have under control by winning the first three games, but an impressive reaction from Boston, led by David Ortiz, Manny Ramirez, Johnny Damon, Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez, allowed them to advance to the World Series and win their first crown in 86 years.
The last time the Yankees and Red Sox met in a do-or-die game was in the 2021 wild-card game, a one-game playoff to decide who would stay alive in the postseason. Boston won again with great pitching from Nathan Eovaldi, home runs from Kyle Schwarber and Xander Bogaerts and three RBIs from Alex Verdugo.
Two versions of the Red Sox
Until 1986, the sudden-death games were a headache for the Red Sox, who suffered four defeats in six such games, all in World Series. In 1946 and 1967 they lost the final against the Cardinals, in 1975 they could not cope with the Cincinnati Reds of Johnny Bench and company, and in 1986 they succumbed to the Mets.
However, since 1999 their luck has changed in these decisive encounters that mark the destinies of a season. Of their last seven do-or-die challenges, Boston has won five:
- Game 5-1999 Division Series vs. Cleveland (12-8)
- Game 5-2003 ALDS vs. Oakland (4-3)
- Game 7-2004 Championship Series vs. Yankees (10-3)
- Game 7-2007 Championship Series vs. Cleveland (11-2)
- 2021 Wild Card Game (single game) vs. Yankees (6-2)
In the present century, the only teams to have defeated the Red Sox in sudden-death games are the Yankees and Rays in the seventh games of the American League Championship Series held in 2003 and 2008, respectively.
Read the full article here
