A hundred wins doesn't buy you anything in October if the team on the other side of the bracket is about to be the best team on the planet. The New York Yankees won 100 games in 2018, and the Boston Red Sox beat them anyway in the ALDS, three games to one, then went on to steamroll the rest of the postseason and win the World Series. Four games decided it. Three weeks later Boston was hoisting a trophy. (Nothing sharpens a rivalry loss quite like watching the guy who ended your season go win the whole thing.)
Game 1: Sale Holds On, Just Barely
J.A. Happ started the opener at Fenway and it went sideways fast -- J.D. Martinez took him deep for a three-run homer in the first, and Boston led 5-0 by the third. Chris Sale was dealing on the other side: 5 1/3 innings, eight strikeouts, two walks, two runs allowed. Boston carried a 5-3 lead into the ninth, and that's when Aaron Judge led off with a home run to make it 5-4 and give everyone back home a reason to believe.
Craig Kimbrel came in to finish it off. He struck out Brett Gardner, then Giancarlo Stanton, then Luke Voit to end it -- three up, three down, 5-4 Red Sox.
Stanton wouldn't see the last of Kimbrel this series.
Game 2: The Only Win, and It Wasn't Even Home
Here's the part that stings in hindsight: the Yankees' lone win in this series came on the road. Masahiro Tanaka took a five-inning, one-run outing and turned it into a win. Gary Sanchez hit two home runs, one of them a 479-foot blast that stood as the longest ball hit at Fenway Park in the Statcast era until Miguel Sano topped it with a 495-footer in 2021. Judge went deep for a third straight postseason game, this one off David Price (who was doing his usual disappearing act in October). Xander Bogaerts answered with a solo shot for Boston, but it wasn't enough. Zach Britton and Aroldis Chapman combined to close out the final six outs, Chapman notching the save. Final: Yankees 6, Red Sox 2.
Series tied at a game apiece, heading back to the Bronx. Felt like momentum. It wasn't.
Game 3: The Worst Loss in Franchise History
Luis Severino got rocked. He lasted three innings and gave up six runs on seven hits, and Boston's seven-run fourth put the game away before it was halfway over. Nathan Eovaldi, a former Yankee working on eight days of rest, sat 99-100 mph all night and allowed one run in seven innings. Final: Red Sox 16, Yankees 1 -- the most lopsided postseason loss in franchise history.
The cherry on top: with the Yankees down 14-1 in the ninth, Aaron Boone sent backup catcher Austin Romine out to pitch, only the second position player ever to take the mound in a postseason game. Romine got two outs. Then he walked Ian Kinsler and grooved a first-pitch fastball that Brock Holt crushed for a two-run homer -- completing the first cycle in postseason history. A catcher gave up a cycle-completing bomb on his first pitch of the night. That's the kind of freakin' game this was.
Game 4: Kimbrel's Number, Again
CC Sabathia started the elimination game and didn't have it, allowing three earned runs in three innings. Rick Porcello was sharp for Boston, five innings, one run. Boston led 4-1 entering the ninth, and Kimbrel -- who'd been walking the ballpark all October despite a tidy 2.74 ERA -- came on to close it out.
He walked Judge to lead off. Didi Gregorius singled. Runners on first and second, nobody out, the Bronx making noise.
Stanton struck out.
Voit walked to load the bases. Neil Walker got hit by a pitch to force in a run, 4-2. Sanchez lifted a sac fly to score Gregorius, 4-3. Gleyber Torres grounded out to third, the Yankees burned a challenge on the relay throw, and lost it. Series over. Kimbrel got the save -- his second of the series, having allowed three runs across 2 1/3 innings of pure white-knuckle relief. Stanton had struck out earlier in the inning with runners on first and second, and Kimbrel walked the ballpark around him and still got away with it. (Some closers just have your number. Kimbrel had Stanton's, even on the nights he didn't have his own control.)
Afterward, Sabathia ripped home plate umpire Angel Hernandez to reporters. Porcello, informed of the comments, shot back that Sabathia should just "throw the ball over the plate." (Even the petty stuff went Boston's way that October.) A fitting coda for a series where the Yankees kept finding new ways to be a little bit worse than Boston.
Three weeks later, the Red Sox beat the Dodgers in five games to win the World Series, with Steve Pearce -- Steve Pearce -- taking home the MVP trophy. The Yankees won 100 games. Boston won 108. But the only four games that mattered were these, and Boston won three of them.
| Series Result | Red Sox 3, Yankees 1 |
| Game 1 (Oct 5, Fenway Park) | Red Sox 5, Yankees 4 |
| Game 2 (Oct 6, Fenway Park) | Yankees 6, Red Sox 2 |
| Game 3 (Oct 8, Yankee Stadium) | Red Sox 16, Yankees 1 |
| Game 4 (Oct 9, Yankee Stadium) | Red Sox 4, Yankees 3 |
| Craig Kimbrel (series) | 2 saves, 3 R allowed in 2.1 IP |
| Aaron Judge (series) | 2 HR (Games 1 and 2); HR in 3 straight postseason games |
| Luis Severino (Game 3) | 3 IP, 6 R, 7 H |
| Nathan Eovaldi (Game 3) | 7 IP, 1 R (8 days rest) |
Game 1: Judge's Homer Isn't Enough
J.D. Martinez's three-run homer off J.A. Happ stakes Boston to an early lead. Judge's ninth-inning leadoff shot makes it close, but Kimbrel strikes out Gardner, Stanton, and Voit in order to seal a 5-4 Red Sox win at Fenway.
Game 2: Yankees Even It in Boston
Tanaka goes five strong, Sanchez hits two homers including a 479-foot shot that stood as the Statcast-era Fenway record until 2021, and Judge goes deep for a third straight game. Britton and Chapman close it out. Yankees win 6-2.
Game 3: The Worst Postseason Loss in Team History
Severino is chased after three innings and six runs. Eovaldi tosses seven innings of one-run ball. Backup catcher Austin Romine pitches the ninth and gives up Brock Holt's cycle-completing, two-run homer. Red Sox win 16-1.
Game 4: Kimbrel Survives, Series Over
Sabathia allows three runs in three innings. Boston leads 4-1 entering the ninth. Kimbrel strikes out Stanton for the first out, walks the bases full of trouble, survives a two-run rally, and gets Torres to ground out to close a 4-3 win and clinch the series.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who won the 2018 ALDS between the Yankees and Red Sox?
The Red Sox won three games to one. Boston took Game 1 at Fenway 5-4, the Yankees won Game 2 at Fenway 6-2, and Boston closed it out at Yankee Stadium with a 16-1 blowout in Game 3 and a 4-3 win in Game 4 on October 9, 2018.
Who closed out the series for Boston?
Craig Kimbrel, Boston's closer, recorded saves in both Game 1 and Game 4 despite showing the wild control that plagued him for most of the second half of 2018. He allowed three runs across 2.1 innings in the series and struck out Giancarlo Stanton in the biggest spot of each game -- though Luke Voit actually made the last out of Game 1, and Gleyber Torres grounded out to end Game 4.
What happened in Game 3 of the 2018 ALDS?
The Red Sox routed the Yankees 16-1 at Yankee Stadium on October 8, the most lopsided postseason loss in franchise history. Luis Severino lasted three innings, Nathan Eovaldi threw seven innings of one-run ball for Boston, and backup catcher Austin Romine pitched the ninth in mop-up duty, giving up the two-run homer that completed Brock Holt's cycle -- the first in postseason history.
How did Giancarlo Stanton perform in his first Yankees postseason?
Rough. Stanton went 1-for-5 with four strikeouts in Game 1, and his defining moment came in Game 4 -- a strikeout against Kimbrel with runners on first and second in the ninth inning of an elimination game. It became the signature image of his first year in pinstripes.
Did the Red Sox win the World Series in 2018 after beating the Yankees?
Yes. Boston went on to beat the Dodgers four games to one in the 2018 World Series, with Steve Pearce winning World Series MVP. It was Boston's fourth title in 15 years and made the ALDS loss to the Yankees look even worse in hindsight -- the Yankees hadn't just lost to a good team, they'd lost to the eventual champs.