The Red Sox and Yankees are no strangers to series with major consequences late on the baseball calendar.

They’ve been harder to find lately as the teams haven’t been good at the same time much over the last decade. When they have been good, they’re usually on a collision course for October.

That became the case in 2018 and 2021, when the Red Sox sent the Yankees home in postseason meetings. Given the outlook of the American League standings and the Toronto Blue Jays still sitting at the top of the division, another October duel looks more and more likely by the day.

New York visits Boston for the final time in the regular season with major implications. The teams have flip-flopped several times in recent weeks for control of the top wild-card spot. That will be critical as the lowest-seeded division winner and top wild-card team will host the three-game sets in the AL Wild Card round.

The Red Sox already have the tiebreaker with the season series in their grasp after they started 8-2 against the Yankees this season. On the other hand, New York entered with a 1/2 game lead for the top spot and extended it by a game with Friday night’s win. Yet the rivals are likely to fluctuate in the race even more with 14 games to go.

The outcome of this series has the potential to ultimately decide who hosts a more-than-probable first-round meeting between Boston and New York. With that said, both teams also need to take care of business after this weekend.

For example, the Yankees swept the Red Sox at Fenway Park late in September 2021 for control in the standings. Ultimately, Boston responded well and gained the top wild-card spot on the final day of the regular season. That move proved vital as the Red Sox earned home-field advantage and eventually a 6-2 win over the Yankees in that year’s AL Wild Card Game, the final one-game playoff under the previous format of that round.

While the AL East race isn’t totally over (the Toronto Blue Jays lead the Yankees by three games and the Red Sox by 4 1/2), the magnitude of this three-game set completely revolves around the wild-card spots remaining in a wide-open American League.

The Red Sox entered the weekend with these advantages: they have the tiebreaker, they play at home this weekend and send their best three starting pitchers to the mound in Lucas Giolito, Brayan Bello and Garrett Crochet.

Both the Red Sox and Yankees enter the tilt with playoff odds north of 95%, per Fangraphs projections. The two big-market rivals are poised for October. Their fate and such contributing factors surely will be impacted this weekend at Fenway.

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