What a glorious three days for the Red Sox as they swept Boston and hardly had to sweat. As for the news that the Yankees want to add an alternate road jersey and break their tradition, I’m not thrilled about it, but at least it’s a pretty simple and elegant look as opposed to some of the horrible City Connect outfits we see. Lets get to it.

How sweet was that?

A clean sweep of the loathsome Red Sox at Fenway is about as good as it gets for the Yankees, and this was a mismatch in every way. The Yankees were better in every phase, but especially on the mound as Luis Gil, Max Fried and Max Schlittler all delivered winning performances. They combined to throw 22.1 innings and allowed just two runs, both of those off Schlitter Thursday night. Just outstanding as they outscored Boston 12-3.

The Yankees, who have the best record in the AL at 16-9 thanks to their six-game winning streak, now lead MLB in staff ERA (3.07) and starter ERA (2.59).

Before I get to the game recaps, I would be remiss if I didn’t say something about the report that came out from multiple outlets early in the week that the Yankees’ players are pushing Hal Steinbrenner to sign off on approving an alternate road jersey in the future.

When I first saw this, I was really pissed because I’m a full-fledged uniform snob. You have a home outfit, a road outfit, your colors are your colors, and that’s it. I can’t stand what is happening these days with uniforms in every sport, especially in college where school colors and tradition no longer matter. Turn on any college football game when I was growing up and you knew exactly who was playing. Do that today and half the time you have no idea which teams are playing because they wear different uniforms every week, many of them not even incorporating school colors.

That trend has permeated pro sports, too, and we see plenty of it in the NFL, the sport that I cover. I hear it’s also a big thing in the NBA, but I have less than zero interest in the NBA and haven’t watched a game probably since Michael Jordan was winning championships 30-plus years ago. Now we’re seeing it in baseball with all these ridiculous City Connect pajama outfits some of these teams wear. It’s a joke.

One thing that has always set the Yankees apart is they never changed their uniform. Ever. Pinstripes at home, grays on the road. Simple. Classic. Traditional. Historic. Yankees. That’s a bridge that I hoped the Yankees would never cross, desecrating the most sacred uniforms in sports, but now they want to join the circus.

But then I saw that the third jersey, which is apparently already approved by MLB, is simply going to be the one they wear in spring training - solid Yankee blue with gray lettering NEW YORK across the front - and my blood pressure came down a little. I still don’t like an alternate jersey, but if this happens, I could live with this one because it’s simple, elegant, and is comprised of the Yankees colors. It’s basically a photo negative of the regular road gray top.

Honestly, it’s a good-looking jersey and most important, it’s not loud and flashy and cartoonish like those ridiculous yellow and powder blue abominations the Red Sox wear for Friday home games.

“There’s a lot of tradition here, the most iconic jersey there is in sports, pretty much,” said Giancarlo Stanton. “But it doesn’t mean that every once in a while you can’t change something up, especially on the road.”

Obviously, adding a third jersey is a continuation to some of the other Yankee traditions that have gone by the wayside in the last couple years - eliminating the facial hair policy and adding the Starr Insurance patch to their jerseys.

I had zero problem with the Yankees finally ending the stupid facial hair policy, as long as the players followed the rule that they keep things neat and trim and didn’t try to emulate the idiot Red Sox from 2004 when half the team looked like it was auditioning for the lead role in Jesus Christ Superstar.

And I know many people were pissed when the Yankees sold out and followed the lead of many other teams when they added the Starr patch on their jerseys in 2023, but that didn’t bother me either. It’s a small little patch, it stays true to the Yankees colors, and if an insurance company is dumb enough to pay Hal $25 million per year to advertise, I can’t fault him from turning his back. Look at it this way: That revenue stream pays nearly all of Max Fried’s annual $27.5 million salary.

“I’m all about tradition, but we got a patch on our sleeves,” Aaron Judge said, the insinuation being that the Yankees have already bucked their tradition by doing that. “I think we’ll always wear the pinstripes at home. I don’t think that’ll change. But we changed our road jersey [removing white piping and trim in 2024], so I guess if we wear the blues, we wear the blues on the road.”

➤ Luis Gil must have read my Monday newsletter and been inspired enough to flip me the bird. I stand by what I wrote and still think he’s the odd man out in the rotation once Carlos Rodon gets back, but he put on a nice show in the opener with 6.1 innings of scoreless ball against a Boston offense that is really scuffling, which is so glorious in every way.

➤ However, Gil didn’t exactly have great stuff. He was fortunate that the Red Sox were chasing everything, and when they did make contact, it was hard but right at Yankee defenders. He gave up just two hits but walked three though none of it came back to haunt him. In fact, if he hadn’t walked the last two men he faced in the seventh, he might have gone longer because he was at a very economical 83 pitches. But seeing that Gil generated only four swings and misses, Boone made the call to Brett Headrick. The lefty has been a pleasant surprise and he’s becoming a key guy in Boone’s circle of trust, and he wiggled out of Gil’s jam by getting the next two men out, the last on a strikeout which survived an ABS challenge.

➤ All Giancarlo Stanton, who has been in a brutal 5-for-42 slump, needed was to get to Boston because he loves hitting in Fenway. He homered off Connelly Early in the second and then after Early walked Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge to start the sixth, Stanton ripped a two-run double to left-center, Judge getting a great read on the ball and scoring all the way from first. The Yankees then tacked on an insurance run - always useful at Fenway - in the eighth when Cody Bellinger singled and came around on Randal Grichuk’s double.

➤ The only downer was Ben Rice’s four-strikeout nightmare. He’s been so great, but this was a rough, rough night for him.

➤ After the game, the Yankees placed Ryan Weathers on paternity leave (though it looks like he’ll make his start in Houston) so reliever Jake Bird is back in our lives. Since being sent down a couple weeks ago, he has made two appearances in Scranton and retired the four batters he faced.

➤ This was the second time the Yankees have pitched back-to-back shutouts and they have five in all to lead MLB.

➤ Max Fried was outstanding, plain and simple. Yes, the Red Sox are pathetic on offense and they really helped Fried by swinging and missing on 18 of his 100 pitches, but Fried would have dominated most teams with this performance. Eight shutout innings, three hits, two walks, nine strikeouts, and he retired the last 14 men he faced.

➤ The Red Sox put men on second and third with no outs in the second inning but Fried struck out three in a row to escape the jam, eliciting boos and groans from the Fenway mob. Thereafter, he realized he was struggling with his command from the full windup so he pitched exclusively from the stretch and began baffling the Red Sox with his breaking stuff and his sinker. He was a surgeon out there.

➤ Headrick took over in the ninth and Boston scored its first run of the series as he gave up hits to Trevor Story and Jarren Duran (who had three of the Red Sox five hits) and that prevented the Yankees from pitching three straight shutouts for the first time since 1962 when Ralph Terry, Bill Stafford and Whitey Ford were the starting pitchers. Terry and Stafford pitched complete games, but Ford threw just one inning and exited with an injury, so Jim Coates came on and pitched eight scoreless.

➤ This was supposed to be a tough night for the offense, and for the most part it was, with big money free agent signee lefty Ranger Suarez on the mound for Boston. But in the first inning, Judge walked, Stanton doubled off the Monster, and Amed Rosario hit a three-run homer onto Lansdowne Street and that decided the game. Otherwise, the Yankees’ offense did almost nothing else. The only other run came in the third when Judge singled, took third on another Stanton double off the Monster, and scored on Rosario’s sac fly. After the fourth inning, even with Alex Cora lifting Suarez in the fifth, the Yankees had just a measly single and a walk, but it didn’t matter because of Fried.

➤ Boone replaced Rosario with Ryan McMahon for defense and he made two magnificent plays, channeling his inner Graig Nettles. His glove is elite, but he whiffed in his only at bat and was down to .125 by game’s end.

➤ This was a far more competitive game than the first two, but the Yankees rallied from a 2-1 deficit with a three-run outburst in the seventh to flip the scoreboard. To that point, Red Sox rookie starter Payton Tolle destroyed the Yankees as he gave up a run on three hits and a walk while striking out 11 over six innings. The Yankees looked lost against him, but Alex Cora took him out at 93 pitches and the Yankees attacked the bullpen.

➤ Danny Coulombe came in and gave up three straight one-out singles before striking out Austin Wells, just another feeble at bat from Wells who got ahead 3-0 and still whiffed. Greg Weissert then came in, so Boone pinch hit Bellinger for Rosario and he blooped a two-run single to left for the lead. Judge then lined an RBI single to right for a 4-2 lead and that decided it.

➤ The Red Sox opened the scoring when Rosario’s throwing error, which would have been the third out, allowed Story to reach, and he raced home on Marcelo Mayer’s double. Jazz Chisholm finally hit his first homer of the year, a Pesky Pole special to right in the fifth, but Carlos Narvaez answered with a homer in the bottom half for Boston’s 2-1 lead.

➤ Schlittler, who was so fired up to pitch at Fenway for the first time, amid ridiculous death threats and other social media stupidity, went eight innings and gave up the two runs on just four hits and a walk, though he struck out only five. David Bednar finished it off with a rare for him 1-2-3 ninth, needing just 11 pitches.

➤ The Yankees struck out 17 times which was pretty horrible, but that paled in comparison to Boston’s series-long ineptitude. In the three games they scored three runs and managed just 13 hits. Their 14 home runs in 25 games is tied for the fewest in MLB, incredible for a team that plays in Fenway.

From one hated rival to the next as the Yankees head down to Houston to play an Astros team that finally seems to be in decline after a decade-plus of dominating the AL West. They missed the postseason in 2025 for the first time since 2016 despite winning 87 games, but they’ll be hard-pressed to reach that number given their 10-16 start which has them in last in their division.

The Astros have the worst team ERA in MLB at 5.81 and the worst WHIP at 1.630 which is just stunning to see, though given their staff has been decimated by injuries, it’s understandable. Offensively, they’ve been veery good, though, as they rank third in on-base (.349) and OPS (.783) so the Yankees will have to pitch well in this series.

➤ DH Yordan Alvarez: The guy is just a machine and he leads MLB in every key offensive category including homers (11), RBI (26), on-base (.466), and OPS (1.245). He’s terrifying.

➤ 1B Christian Walker: He had a tough first year in Houston but has bounced back with five homers, 18 RBI and a .864 OPS.

➤ 2B Jose Altuve: Still the same annoying gnat that he’s always been with an on-base of .352.

➤ SS Carlos Correa: Also still a pain in the ass now that he’s back in Houston, off to a nice start with a .284 average, a .366 on-base and 13 RBI.

➤ RP Enyel De Los Santos: With Josh Hader on the injured list, he has been forced into the closer role and he has three saves and a solid 1.179 WHIP.