Baseball’s greatest rivalry takes center stage on Sunday Night Baseball with the New York Yankees hosting the Boston Red Sox for the rubber match of this three-game set. 

Boston made an incredible comeback on Friday night to win the series opener, but the Yankees’ bats responded on Saturday, scoring 14 runs behind three Ben Rice homers. 

New York enters Sunday’s matchup as the favorite, but it has not played well over the last three weeks, allowing Boston to close the gap between the teams in the AL East standings. 

Here’s a look at the odds, probable pitchers, key players to watch and my best bet for Sunday’s standalone matchup. 

Red Sox vs. Yankees Odds, Run Line and Total

Run Line

• Red Sox +1.5 (-175)
• Yankees -1.5 (+145)

Moneyline

• Red Sox: +114
• Yankees: -135

Total

• 8.5 (Over -110/Under -110)

Red Sox vs. Yankees Probable Pitchers

• Boston: Kutter Crawford (4-7, 3.47 ERA)
• New York: Luis Gil (9-4, 3.41 ERA)

Red Sox vs. Yankees How to Watch

• Date: Sunday, July 7
• Time: 7:00 p.m. EST
• Venue: Yankee Stadium
• How to watch (TV): ESPN
• Red Sox record: 48-40
• Yankees record: 55-36 

Red Sox vs. Yankees Key Players to Watch

Boston Red Sox

Rafael Devers: There may not be a hotter hitter in baseball right now than Boston Red Sox star Rafael Devers. Over his last 10 games, Devers is hitting a ridiculous .368 with a 1.297 OPS, slugging five homers, including one on Saturday. Can he carry the Boston offense on Sunday? 

New York Yankees

Luis Gil: The electric rookie got off to a fast start for the Yankees this season, but he’s come back to earth as of late. Gil’s ERA has jumped from 1.82 on June 4 to 3.41 entering this start, and he’s walked 13 batters over his last four starts. That being said, he did lead the Yankees to a win over the Sox on June 14, pitching five innings of one-run ball. 

Red Sox vs. Yankees Prediction and Pick

The Yankees bounced back from a bad loss on Friday night, scoring 14 runs on Saturday to beat Boston and even this three-game set, but can they pull off a win on Sunday Night Baseball?

I'm not sold on it, especially with the struggling Gil on the mound. The rookie had been lights out through the first 2.5 months of the season, but his ERA has skyrocketed over his last few starts, and he’s been prone to the long ball – allowing one in four of his last five outings – as well. 

Gil did allow just one run over five frames in his last start against Boston, but his lack of command as of late is something to worry about for Yankee fans. He's allowed 13 walks in his last four starts, giving him very little margin for error — especially against an offense like Boston's.

I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Red Sox win this game, especially since Crawford kept the Yankees in check in a 9-3 Boston win the last time he faced New York. 

The pre-match training session was anything but quiet and routine, as hundreds of fans turned up for a glimpse of their king

Shashank Kishore15-May-20253:48

Pujara: ‘Under Kohli’s captaincy, everyone started believing we can win overseas’

By a quarter to five on Thursday afternoon, the gates of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium were throbbing. Hundreds of fans had pressed up against the barricades, their collective gaze fixated down Cubbon Road, awaiting the sound of the police siren that generally marks the arrival of the team bus that then turns left into Gate No. 10.For a fleeting moment, the energy dimmed. A bus did appear, but it wore purple and gold, not the one they’d come for. As it rolled past smoothly, the fans began counting down time. Perhaps the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB) bus was on its way, they convinced themselves. That wait lasted more than an hour, not enough to dim their excitement. And when a bus painted in red and gold finally emerged amid a sea of vehicles, the frenzy reached fever pitch.”Virat! King! Kohli! Koeli! Boss!”Related

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The chants rose like a wave, only to be absorbed by the honking chaos of stalled traffic along Cubbon Park. If you expected a routine pre-match nets to be a quiet affair, you were wrong. The RCB faithful, who want to turn up in whites to pay tribute to their hero Virat Kohli, turned it into an event.Every Kohli appearance at the Chinnaswamy carries a hum of energy. This one felt different. It surely felt like the after-effects of the big announcement he’d made earlier in the week. But for all the hoopla outside, when Kohli arrived – AirPods in, unhurried, and slowly climbing the stairs to the dressing room – he looked utterly at ease with his surroundings.A quick change over into training gears later, Kohli emerged on the balcony amid a number of shutter bugs eager to get the best click. And quickly after, Kohli was all business. As he walked into the arena, padded up and bounding out with three bats in tow, he caught up with Ajinkya Rahane briefly, before they went in two different directions.Kohli was the first out to bat at the main net. For over 45 minutes, he stayed put, alternating with Phil Salt as they faced up to an army of net bowlers initially, until the rest of RCB’s pack joined in after their warm-ups. Out came the drives, cuts, short-arm jabs – routine Kohli territory. And when the spinners came on, Kohli danced down the track to replicate a mini-version of that now epic Melbourne flat-bat when Suyash Sharma thought he’d beaten him with a skiddy length ball.All eyes on me: Kohli is almost always at the centre of attention at the Chinnaswamy•BCCIFor all the while he batted, it seemed business as usual for Kohli. The unwavering focus towards his strokes, the grimace when he mistimed hits, the yelp of “come on!” when he was beaten. But as he finished his net session and packed his kit to walk off, all the net bowlers who were made to toil took turns to walk up and greet him. Kohli obliged all of them and turned to walk back. Until he received a pat on the back from Venkatesh Iyer.As Kohli walked back, with security personnel having to draw a cordon behind the advertising hoardings and sightscreen, the chaotic spectacle relented to a more routine evening. The cameras found another batter to train their focus on, and there were many who hit them big, perhaps none bigger than Andre Russell and Tim David, who batted simultaneously in two different corners, seemingly trying to outdo each other.But even as the big hitters took center stage, there was a quiet hum that remained, unlike the chaotic spectacle from an hour earlier – proof that the evening had already belonged to someone else.

The MLB Draft lottery results are in after the drawing occurred on Tuesday.

The 18 teams that didn’t make the postseason were thrown into the lottery with the chance of earning top picks for the 2026 draft. The White Sox entered Tuesday with the best odds to land the No. 1 pick, and wound up winning the lottery. It’s the first time since 1977, and just the third in franchise history, that the White Sox have secured the top draft pick.

The team entering the lottery with the worst record was of course the Rockies, who went 43–119 this past season. However, since they selected in the top six in each of the past two years, they were not allowed to do so for a third year in a row, per MLB rules. Colorado ended up in the 10th draft spot.

Here’s the full draft order from Tuesday’s lottery.

The 2026 MLB Draft will take place in Philadelphia on July 11–12.

The Yankees have once again ended a season without winning a World Series as they had their year come to an end Wednesday night with a 5-2 loss at home to the Blue Jays in Game 4 of their American League Division Series.

The Yankees now enter the offseason with questions about the future of their manager, Aaron Boone, and questions about what roster moves they can make in order to try to win their first title since way back in 2009.

Yankees great Derek Jeter was on Fox's postgame show and during his breakdown of yet another disappointing finish for the franchise he spoke about what the roughest thing was for Yankees fans to stomach after falling short of a championship again.

"What's tough is for the Yankee fans, this is the second year in a row they've watched another team celebrate on their home field and you can feel the frustration," the Hall of Famer said.

Jeter also had a very honest statement about this year's Yankees team.

"Aaron [Boone] said it. They got beat. They got beat," Jeter said. "Last year you could sit back and talk about the World Series and Game 5 and that the Yankees beat themselves in that particular game. In this series the Toronto Blue Jays proved they are a better team. From top to bottom they are a better team."

Here are Jeter's full comments:

It will be interesting to see what the Yankees do moving forward and how different the team will look next season.

As for right now, it has to be a rough day for the team's fans because so much is expected from this club every season, which means every playoff exit stings even more. Especially when they have to see another team celebrating on their home field.

The Saurashtra batsman opens up on the mental pressures he dealt with during a memorable domestic campaign

Shashank Kishore23-Mar-2020In December 2019, Saurashtra batsman Sheldon Jackson was going through a “dark phase” and was on the verge of walking away from cricket, a game he had fallen in love with as a 12-year-old.Only 32, Jackson was one of the pillars of Saurashtra’s batting and had seen the team steadily rise to the top echelons in domestic cricket. Yet he was feeling a sense of hopelessness creeping in.Team-mates began noticing Jackson’s habits and moods. He would often restrict himself to his room after play, unlike earlier when he would be part of the team’s fun and games and dinners.”This was the time when a lot of players were speaking about mental-health issues and how it was impacting their cricket, but I wasn’t comfortable speaking about it because I wasn’t sure how it would’ve been perceived,” Jackson tells ESPNcricinfo. “My team-mates felt I was overthinking, I was becoming very intense. On the field, I was always bothered by these thoughts. It was becoming a mental burden.”ALSO READ: The evolution of the Saurashtra familyRemarkably, just four months later, Jackson played his part in Saurashtra’s historic triumph when they beat Bengal in Rajkot to win their maiden Ranji Trophy title. Jackson finished the season with 809 runs in 18 innings at an average of 50.56, and was the third-highest run-getter among batsmen in the non-Plate category. It was a week of celebrations for Jackson, who became a father the day before Saurashtra were crowned champions.A week after lifting the Ranji trophy, Jackson is at home, spending time with his newborn, with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the cancellation of the Irani Cup match Saurashtra would otherwise have been playing against Rest of India.”I’ve had time to look back at what has been a challenging season, one that knocked me at different times, although on the outside, it looked like nothing could go wrong. I’d planned a short holiday with friends after the Irani Cup, but that had to be cancelled. I’m happy changing nappies, doing duties of a nightwatchman at home, spending time with my newborn son.”Along with joy, there has also been a bit of sadness. The day before the Ranji final, March 8, Jackson mourned the demise of NC Gohil, his first coach, and the one person he wanted to thank for becoming a Ranji winner. It was Gohil who had spotted the 12-year-old from Bhavnagar and taught him respect the game and its nuances.

“It’s hard to say if I would’ve retired, but I wasn’t in the best mind space. I had to battle inner demons. My mother wasn’t well, I wasn’t feeling well physically”

“I started off going for just the summer camp, but he spotted the talent in me and gave me an opportunity to play for the districts a few years later,” Jackson says. “He was the whole and soul of the Bhavnagar District Cricket Association. He’s had a massive contribution to who I am today. He would’ve been proud to see me part of a Ranji Trophy-winning team. The last week, I’ve had time to reflect on my journey from there to where I am.”So what was the dark phase all about?Most of it had to do with not getting near the India cap, the ultimate dream of any domestic player. Jackson had already aired his frustration on his Twitter account last year when he failed to be part of any of the India A tours. That outburst on Twitter, Jackson says, was the result of constant rejection.”It was the hurt, maybe, of being ignored season after season. It’s as if some voice is telling you: ‘Mate, you aren’t good enough. Nice try, but sorry.’ That hurt.”Jackson ended the 2018-19 Ranji Trophy with 854 runs at an average of 47.44. But no Saurashtra player made the India A cut even though they finished runners-up.ALSO READ: ESPNcricinfo’s Ranji Trophy XI: Jaydev Unadkat to lead, Sarfaraz Khan at No. 4The snub contributed to a dip in motivation as Jackson battled physical and mental issues. “All of it contributed to a dark mind space I found myself in [at the start of the season]. It’s hard to say if I would’ve retired, but I wasn’t in the best mind space. I had to battle inner demons. My mother wasn’t well, I wasn’t feeling well physically. Batting seemed a chore. I had this feeling that whatever I score isn’t going to be noticed anyway. Only my wife, mother and Chirag Jani [his Saurashtra team-mate] knew what I was going through.”Jackson and Jani, three years his junior, have played together through their professional careers and are best friends. They went to the same school and the same academy in Bhavnagar, and played for the same club before sharing the Saurashtra dressing room.”I played through an ankle injury after the quarter-finals of the 2018-19 season,” Jackson says. “My toes used to swell up. I had to cut out my right shoe to play through pain, but that dream of winning the Ranji Trophy kept me going, even though deep down I knew I may have been pushing it.”We didn’t win and that added to my disappointment. And after our third game [of the 2019-20 season] against Uttar Pradesh, I was questioning myself. ‘Is it still worth pushing it?’ I’ve made runs season after season, only to be told, ‘Sorry, we can’t pick you for India A.’ What next?”Sheldon Jackson had his match shirt autographed by the whole team•ESPNcricinfo LtdAfter that game, Saurashtra had a new coach in Karsan Ghavri, whose influence Jackson credits for his turnaround. “He is a legend, and in cricket terms, he wasn’t a ‘coach coach’ but a superb man manager. He let me be myself, allowed me my space and time. Over time, I realised whenever Cheteshwar [Pujara] wasn’t around, I took a lot of pressure on myself. And I think somewhere it showed.”Arpit [Vasavada] coming in and playing the way he has somewhat helped me go back to my old ways. Playing freely without worrying about protecting your wicket, not worried of the team failing if I didn’t score. So in a way, the chats I had with Karsan helped. He got the players into a good space. I certainly benefited from working under him. He brought a lot of calmness inside me. I wasn’t thinking about runs, selection. I was just happy to play every game and perform.”Jackson says speaking to his close friends outside cricket also helped give him perspective. “I used to think cricket was a skill sport, but I was wrong,” he says. “My friends, Marshall and Visakha, who I work out with, pushed me to get physically fit. I could sense when I was out on the field the whole day, how different I felt once I lost weight and worked on building muscle.”I am 33 but I can proudly compete with a 22-year-old. I realised to get back in the IPL or play at a higher level, I needed this tuning of not just the mind but the body as well. I have been training with Marshall [a gym instructor] and have seen a huge change in myself. Now, I’m even more hungry to keep playing. Because I think I found my recovery times improving as the season went along.”

“It’s natural for me to have expressed disappointment, you aren’t human otherwise. But now I have new perspective. There’s purpose to my game, to keep going regardless”

For the moment, Jackson is at peace, having put behind him the hurt of selection snubs, but he says matters of the mind are still a work in progress. He says winning the Ranji Trophy has helped a great deal, for starters, but he’s keen to continue working on his mind and body to ensure he sustains the hunger for runs.”I’m feeling light,” he says. “It’s natural for me to have expressed disappointment, you aren’t human otherwise. But now I have new perspective. There’s purpose to my game, to keep going regardless, without expecting that reward. It’s the love for the game.”Soon, Jackson will resume work with the Income Tax office, his employers, in Ahmedabad. He has files to scrounge through, cases to handle, and pages of notes and training material to revise. Jackson couldn’t be more thankful for the support from his employers.”Work beckons now. That’s the life of a domestic cricketer during the off season,” he says with a smile. “They’ve been the most supportive over the year. It’s this security that has also helped me. Today, if a cricketer isn’t part of the IPL, you need that security of a job to keep you going, because you can’t play forever. A Ranji Trophy title has given me the hunger to keep going, when it seemed as if my time was up. The fire is still burning.”

Also: why are there so many sixes in Sharjah?

Sreshth Shah27-Sep-2020Can Sanju Samson buck his trend and carry his good form deep into the IPL?After hitting a 32-ball 74 against the Chennai Super Kings and a 42-ball 85 against the Kings XI, it seems Samson can do very little wrong this season. This start is nothing new for Samson, though. He has been a supremely good starter in past IPL seasons too. The question that needs answering is whether he can keep this momentum going – a point of concern in his batting since IPL 2017.In 2017, 30% of Samson’s runs came in his first two games. In 2018, his first-three innings contributed 45.5% of his season’s runs and in 2019 his first three outings earned him 41% of the season’s runs.It is also worth noting that both his half-centuries have come in Sharjah, which is the only venue where teams have scored over 200 in each of the four batting innings so far.How underrated is Jofra Archer the batsman?In 100 T20s, Archer has batted 51 times, facing an average of 6.09 balls per innings, but that low figure is probably because he usually comes in with very few balls left – subsequently, he has been not out 26 times. His 459 T20 runs have come at a strike rate of 147.58, and 250 of his runs have come in fours and sixes – a boundary-percentage of 54.47% and a ball-per-boundary ratio of 5.86.That he can be a game changer with the bat came to the fore in the Royals’ win against the Chennai Super Kings in IPL 2020 when he struck his second, third and fourth ball for a hat-trick of sixes in a 30-run over that pushed the Royals from 186 in 19 overs to 216 in 20. Royals ended up winning that match by 16 runs. It was a skill he repeated again against the Kings XI today, when the first two balls he faced after Robin Uthappa’s dismissal went for sixes, bringing the target down from 21 off 11 balls to 9 off 9. On both occasions, he did that against international bowlers in Lungi Ngidi and Mohammed Shami.Having scored 40 off 11 balls this season, the Royals could consider giving him the opportunity to play more than just a few balls in the coming games.Jofra Archer celebrates after helping Rajasthan Royals pull off a record chase•BCCIWhy did Rajasthan Royals send Rahul Tewatia in at No. 4? And why did he struggle in the early stages of his innings?Royals captain Steven Smith said after the game that Tewatia had impressed all in the Royals’ camp by hitting plenty of big shots in the nets. A combination of that, along with a T20 strike rate of more than 150 and the fact that he was the only left-hand batsman in the Royals’ XI probably prompted his promotion to No. 4 as a pinch-hitter.Sending in a left-hand batsman gained significance because the Kings XI had two legbreak bowlers in M Ashwin and Ravi Bishnoi, who together had a maximum of six overs up their sleeves when Tewatia walked in after the dismissal of Steven Smith in the ninth over. Traditionally, a legbreak bowler turns the ball into the left-hand batsman, creating a natural arc to hit straight or across the line.However, the reason Tewatia struggled early on – he was on eight runs off 19 balls at one stage – possibly was because the Kings XI introduced offspin in the form of Glenn Maxwell against him, and Bishnoi brought out his googlies. It’s not that Tewatia wasn’t picking the googlies, but that he couldn’t execute the inside-out shots over cover. The only six he hit off Bishnoi was off his 20th ball, when he came down the track, effectively cutting down the amount the ball could turn, and then hitting it over long-off.When Sheldon Cottrell, a left-arm seamer, bowled the 18th over to Tewatia from over the wicket, the angle coming into him worked in his favour, and he clattered five sixes, taking his score of 17 in 23 balls to 47 in 29 balls.In hindsight, we wonder whether KL Rahul should’ve handed the 18th over to Ashwin instead of Cottrell, considering how much Tewatia was struggling against Bishnoi. Ashwin had bowled just one over in the match till then, but then traditionally spinners are kept away from the death overs. Tewatia duly feasted on Cottrell instead.Why is Sharjah seeing such high totals?In the four batting innings in Sharjah this season, a total of 865 runs have been scored in 79.3 overs, at an economy of 10.88 runs per over.The pitch hasn’t been as conducive to the pace bowlers, as has been the case on the semi-grassy decks on offer in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Also the smaller ground dimensions in Sharjah have played a role.Let’s compare the dimensions of Abu Dhabi – based on the game played there on Saturday between the Knight Riders and the Sunrisers – and Sharjah – based on today’s game – from one end. The straight boundary at Abu Dhabi was 77m long; in Sharjah it was 73m. The boundaries at long-off and long-on were 74m and 77m respectively in Abu Dhabi, but in Sharjah it was 71m and 65m. The square boundaries in Abu Dhabi were 65m and 73m, in Sharjah they were 60m and 61m. Lastly, the third-man and fine-leg boundaries in Abu Dhabi were 59m and 64m, while they were 58m and 55m in Sharjah.So, shots that just clear the boundary in Sharjah are likely to offer chances on the boundary in Abu Dhabi. So far in this IPL, in two Sharjah matches a total of 62 sixes have been hit. In the other seven games, there have been only 55 sixes.

An intrepid visitor to The Oval was among 1000 people helping trial the return of crowds to sporting events in the UK

Tawhid Qureshi27-Jul-2020Choice of game
A tumultuous few months, when the prospect of watching any kind of live sport seemed distant, gave way to hope and optimism as I happily passed through the Oval’s Alec Stewart Gate. I was there to watch perhaps the most significant friendly game of cricket ever played, ironically between traditional rivals, Surrey and Middlesex. I was one of the fortunate 1000 Surrey members who had patiently dialled and then several more times redialled the ticket office, to be rewarded with a ticket for the first spectator-attended sports event in England for four months. The match in essence was a glorified practice session for both sides, but the occasion itself was of far more importance, a government-endorsed test of how cricket could function as a spectator sport, against the backdrop of Covid-19.Although the surroundings of The Oval were comfortingly familiar, Surrey had clearly gone to huge lengths to make sure that the venue fully complied with new Covid-19 guidelines. The detailed four-page spectator guide emailed in advance was a taste of what to expect, including rather comical instructions to avoid hugs and to take care when celebrating. Hand sanitiser was placed at the entrance and throughout the periphery of the ground, arrows clearly directed a one-way walking system and stewards politely asked that face coverings be used in the enclosed parts of the ground. These measures seemed very sensible and a minor inconvenience in order to experience the normality of hearing leather on willow.Key Performers
The lack of genuine intensity in the game was forgivable, particularly as both teams had agreed to bat for exactly one day regardless of the number of wickets lost, indeed Surrey continued to bat after losing 10 wickets and the unlucky Ryan Patel was out twice in the same innings. Pre-season friendlies are usually a good time to give debuts, and Middlesex’s tall 18-year-old Blake Cullen will certainly remember his first ball in senior cricket, as he claimed the wicket of Will Jacks, caught at slip. His second spell after lunch signalled how much of an exciting prospect he is, as he ran in hard from the pavilion end and picked up a second wicket.Jacks began his innings with dazzling strokeplay, fluently driving the ball towards the boundary, and he looked disappointed to be dismissed after reaching his half-century. Surrey have contributed several players to the current England set up, Jacks will be hoping the season ahead means that he’s next in line. Scott Borthwick shared the most significant partnership of the innings with Jacks and eventually top scored with 87, and some late order hitting from Jordan Clark was also eye-catching.Wow Moments
Allrounder Clark’s clean hit for six over midwicket against a tiring Middlesex attack illustrated his ability to score quickly and his importance as a multi-format cricketer. The other memorable moments of the day involved sharp catching from the Middlesex fielders, despite a long gap from playing the game, most of the fielding didn’t show any sign of rustiness. Captain Stephen Eskinazi and Nick Gubbins both made difficult catches look simple.One Thing I’d Change
The overall organisation of the event was superb, but perhaps so much attention had been placed on ensuring the new social distancing guidelines were followed that communicating the quirky playing conditions was almost forgotten. Basic information about the playing XI wasn’t easily obtained but in the grand scheme of things this was a very minor gripe.Back in business: Will Jack and Scott Borthwick got going out in the middle•Getty ImagesThe Crowd
The bulk of the 1000-strong crowd were seated in a few blocks of the newly named 1845 Stand – beneath the famous gas-holder – albeit with many gaps in between, the idea being to test crowd management and social distancing within a relatively confined space. This meant warm applause greeting each Surrey boundary and subsequent landmarks was satisfyingly amplified, even if the vast empty stands opposite made the ground look lop-sided. The crowd itself was always good natured, even a rain delay and darkened clouds were unable to dampen spirits and the sense of appreciation.One of the pleasures of watching first-class county cricket at The Oval is the chance to regularly change seats and take in different views of the middle, unallocated seating being the norm. Understandably on this occasion the PA system regularly reminded people to remain in their allocated seat. Another new experience took place in the morning; a crisply struck cover drive from Jacks sent the ball speeding towards the boundary rope and then deflecting into the stands; as a spectator went to fetch the ball from under his seat, those around him anxiously told him not to. Instead the ball was kicked towards the bottom of the stand and retrieved by a fielder. The issue of touching the ball, perhaps unhelpfully and confusingly highlighted by Boris Johnson, is another part of the new Covid-19 world that we must adjust to.Marks out of 10
A triumphant 10. The hard work that Surrey had put in behind the scenes meant that the day went as smoothly as possible. Once I was safely seated, it was easy to focus on the contest in the middle and engage in sorely missed conversations about who should open the batting – the value of such seemingly mundane chat now priceless. I can only hope the success of the day results in more cricket for spectators at The Oval and beyond, a safe environment for watching cricket is clearly achievable and hugely desired by countless supporters everywhere.
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