Yankees Power Their Way to Wild Card Win to Set Up Showdown With Red Sox

They had to wait 14 years, but the Yankees will get their chance to get revenge on the Red Sox in the playoffs.

Courtesy of a 7-2 shellacking of the Oakland A’s in MLB’s wild-card round, New York will face Boston in the playoffs for the first time since 2004.

That was the year the Red Sox came back from an 0-3 series deficit to win and then went on to capture their first World Series title since 1918.

This year’s series has all the makings of a heavyweight bout between opponents who know each other well with heavy hitters on both sides, sluggers Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton on one team, MVP candidates Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez on the other.

“It’s going to be fun,” Yankees reliever Dellin Betances said after the win. “A lot of people in baseball wanted this. We wanted this. We [get] a chance to go head-to-head with them. We’ve been doing it all year, so this is going to be a fun, exciting series.”

After playing 19 times during the regular season, the Red Sox squeaked out a 10-9 advantage of wins after knocking off the Yanks in the last game of the season at Fenway Park. It’s an even matchup, and a fun one.

The best-of-five series will get started on Friday night when Boston ace Chris Sale takes the mound opposite J.A. Happ.