The Red Sox will visit the Yankees for the best-of-three American League wild-card series, all at Yankee Stadium. Game 1 is at 6:08 p.m. Tuesday, Garrett Crochet against Max Fried.
“I would’ve been juiced regardless of who we are playing,” Crochet said as the Sox packed their bags for a flight to New York. “I’m sure that the environment will have that borderline toxicity feel to it that you’ve come to experience throughout the season when you go there.”
The Red Sox have not lost to the Yankees in the postseason since 2003. They beat them in 2021, ’18, and — some might remember — ’04.
This year, the Sox owned the season series, 9-4. But the Yankees won two of three in their most recent matchup.
“It’s New York against Boston,” manager Alex Cora said. “It’s going to be big.”
Added catcher Carlos Narváez: “Yankees-Boston is going to be awesome every time of the year, and immediately even more. Our goal is to get out of there in two games and bring the postseason back here to Fenway.”
The game Sunday was a matter of obligation for the Red Sox but of some importance for the Tigers, who needed a win (and a Guardians loss) to claim the AL Central title. Detroit settled for the last wild-card spot and will open a series at Cleveland Tuesday.
Not wanting to use too many pitchers of playoff significance, the Sox called up righthander José De León from Triple A for the start. Such a move was not on anyone’s radar, including De León’s, who was home in Puerto Rico, fully engaged in offseason mode and planning to go to the beach Sunday.
But then three people from the Red Sox reached out to him Saturday, so he “knew something was up.”
“They asked me if I was playing catch, throwing,” De León said. “I told them yes, which was a lie.”
Cora said: “He told me that he was playing catch during the week. No chance he was playing catch. I follow him on Instagram. He was at the beach hanging out.”
De León, 33 years old and a best prospect for the Dodgers a decade ago, had a 6.93 ERA for Worcester this year and a 7.44 ERA in 34 major league games across six seasons — including no action since 2023.
But Cora long has had a soft spot for him, in part because he pitched for Cora’s winter ball team in Puerto Rico. The Red Sox also knew he would be able to provide them a full start — Cora asked for 100 pitches, De León half-jokingly offered 120 — whereas the other arms available at the team’s stay-ready camp in Fort Myers, Fla., weren’t ready for such a workload.
So De León took a midnight flight from San Juan to Philadelphia, landed at 4 a.m., napped at the gate, caught a connection to Boston at 7:30 a.m., landed, napped at a hotel for an hour, arrived at Fenway, and was star struck upon meeting game-planning coach Jason Varitek.
De León grew up a Red Sox fan, for a couple of reasons: His godfather lived in Brookline for 35 years, and as a kid he was assigned No. 5 so his coach started calling him “Nomar.”
“I didn’t know who Nomar was. I got very upset,” he said. “I told him that my name wasn’t Nomar. When I found out who was Nomar [Garciaparra], that was my team.”
For a day, the Red Sox became his team for real. De León pitched arguably the game of his life: 6⅔ innings, three runs, 101 pitches, and a win.
When Cora pulled him in the seventh, De León walked off the mound to a standing ovation from the sellout crowd of 35,503.
“The fans didn’t miss a beat,” Cora said. “That ovation was great, and one he’s going to remember the rest of his life.”
De León said: “I was trying to hold the tears, because I’ve been through a lot. Being able to go out there and perform in front of a packed house on the last game of the year, kind of a meaningful game, it’s special.”
Masataka Yoshida staked the Red Sox to a lead in the first inning with a solo home run.
After Javier Báez put Detroit ahead with a three-run shot off De León in the best of the fourth, the Sox struck back in the next half-inning. David Hamilton anthem a tying two-run homer, and Jarren Duran had the go-ahead double to score Nick Sogard (who also doubled).
And immediately it is on to the next one, in New York, for a postseason ride that could last anywhere between two days and a month-plus.
“Are we perfect?” Cora said. “No, we’re not. But I don’t think there’s a perfect team out there, to be honest with you.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.
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