Tuesday night, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will rekindle their rivalry with the first of three at Yankee Stadium. The rivalry got a little stale for a few years there, but now that both teams are bona fide World Series contenders, things have started to heat back up. It's good for baseball when these two teams are good at the same time.

Here, for information purposes, are the AL East standings heading into Tuesday night's series opener:

American League East
Team W L Pct. GB RS RA Diff
Boston 25 9 .735 - 192 125 +67
N.Y. Yankees 24 10 .706 1 197 135 +62
Toronto 19 16 .543 6½ 180 164 +16
Tampa Bay 15 17 .469 9 142 144 -2
Baltimore 8 26 .235 17 115 187 -72

Technically, first place in the AL East is on the line this series. That said, it's only May 8, and the Yankees and Red Sox still have another 13 head-to-head games to play after this series, so perhaps don't get too caught up in the standings yet.

As far as early May series go though, this week's three-game affair at Yankee Stadium is about as big as it gets. Here's what you need to know heading into the series.

These are the two best teams in baseball

Going into Tuesday night's opener the Red Sox and Yankees have the two best records in baseball. They are also No. 1 and 2 in Matt Snyder's MLB Power rankings. They have the second and third best run differentials, respectively, behind the Astros (plus-77), who padded their run differential with a blowout win Monday night (HOU 16, OAK 2).

It has been more than a decade and a half since the Yankees and Red Sox have met while having the two best records in baseball.

Yeah, it's been a long time since these two teams were this good at the same time.

The Yankees are on a 15-1 hot streak ...

The Yankees have won 15 of their last 16 games -- it's the first time they've done that since 1980 -- and they did it by beating good teams too. The five teams they played during the 15-1 stretch (Blue Jays, Twins, Angels, Astros, Indians) had a projected combined .551 winning percentage coming into the season, according to FanGraphs. The Yankees didn't fatten up against rebuilding teams.

A 15-1 hot streak would lead you to believe it came easy for the Yankees -- they outscored their opponents 98-37 during the 16 games, or roughly four runs per game -- but the last few wins were anything but easy. Within their last six games the Yankees made two ninth inning comebacks, and on two other occasions the game was tied in the ninth inning. They've won some close games lately. They haven't been steamrolling opponents.

... but the Red Sox had a 16-1 stretch earlier this year

A few weeks ago Boston did New York's 15-1 streak one better. The Red Sox went 16-1 at one point earlier this season, specifically right after losing Opening Day. Their 17-2 start to the season was literally the best start in franchise history. No Red Sox team had ever won 17 of their first 19 games until this year. Pretty crazy.

The Red Sox have come back down to Earth since that 16-1 stretch, going 8-7 in their last 15 games and actually getting outscored 69-72. Those 16 wins in 17 games are wins in the bank, though I'm guessing the BoSox are a little perturbed that, after getting off to the best start in franchise history, their division lead has already been reduced to one game on May 8. (The Yankees have made up 6 1/2 games in the standings in the last two weeks.)

There's bad blood already this season

That one loss the Red Sox suffered during their 16-1 stretch? That was to the Yankees at Fenway Park on April 11. That game will be remembered for two benches clearing incidents, the second of which involved actual punches being thrown. Joe Kelly took exception to Tyler Austin sliding into second base with his spikes high, so he plunked him, and Austin charged the mound.

Here is the entire saga:

It seemed Austin's spikes high slide was inadvertent. He was a careless but didn't appear to have the intent to injury. Still, Kelly wasn't happy about it, so he drilled him, and things escalated from there. Kelly was given a six-game suspension and Austin a four-game suspension, both of which have already been served. They'll be in uniform and available this series.

What does Kelly think about the possible reaction from the Yankee Stadium crowd? Here's what he told Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe:

"I just hope people don't throw stuff in the bullpen. Say whatever you want and be loud. That'll be fine," Kelly said. "If I get booed, so what? There are worse things in life."

Kelly was told he might actually like being booed given his personality.

"No comment — but most likely yeah," he said. "I'm the complete opposite. If it gets loud, my psycho ass thinks they're cheering for me. I'm mentally wrong. It'll be fun."

Okie dokie. The Red Sox won two of three when these teams met in Fenway Park in April, by the way. They outscored the Yankees 27-14 in the three games.

The pitching matchups favor the Yankees

On paper, anyway. Who knows what'll actually happen on the field? Here are the scheduled starting pitchers for this week's series:

Yankees

Red Sox

Tuesday

Luis Severino (5-1, 2.11 ERA)

Drew Pomeranz (1-1, 6.14 ERA)

Wednesday

Masahiro Tanaka (4-2, 4.39 ERA)

Rick Porcello (5-0, 2014 ERA)

Thursday

CC Sabathia (2-0, 1.39 ERA)

Eduardo Rodriguez (3-0, 5.29 ERA)

The pitching matchups looks more lopsided before David Price was scratched from Wednesday's start with numbness in his hand. He left a start earlier this season (against the Yankees) will a similar issue.

Price started the season by throwing seven shutout innings in back-to-back starts against the Rays, but since then he's allowed 24 runs in 23 innings across five starts. That includes four runs allowed in one inning against the Yankees last month. Since joining the BoSox, Price has a 7.42 ERA in eight starts against the Yankees. 

As for Pomeranz, he went down with a flexor strain in spring training and hasn't looked quite right since coming back. Most notably, his velocity is down about 2 mph across the board. On all his pitches. It could be that he's still getting up to speed after having spring training interrupted by injury. Whatever it is, Pomeranz's results have suffered.

It should be noted that, on the other side of the coin, the Red Sox roughed up both Severino (five runs in five innings) and Tanaka (six runs in five innings) in Fenway Park last month. Given how Pomeranz and Price have pitched lately though, I think the pitching matchup edge goes to New York. And of course what I think means nothing.

J.D. Martinez enjoys Yankee Stadium

J.D. Martinez is new to the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry but he is very familiar with Yankee Stadium. He had a three-homer game in the Bronx in 2015 and is a career .333/.366/.615 hitter in 10 games at the ballpark. Take a look at his 2018 spray chart and you can see why he enjoys hitting in Yankee Stadium:

j-d-martinez-2018-spray-chart.png
J.D. Martinez's right field power is a great fit for Yankee Stadium. Baseball Savant

Martinez has tremendous opposite field power, and a right-handed batter with right field power is a great fit for Yankee Stadium's short porch. If the Yankees are unable to keep him in check -- Martinez will strike out a bunch -- he's going to wear out the short porch this series.

So far this season Martinez is hitting .349/.396/.619 with eight home runs overall. He's put up a .415/.462/.707 batting line in his last 21 games.

Stanton is probably looking forward to seeing some lefties

Martinez is a big ticket offseason pickup who's living up to the hype. Giancarlo Stanton hasn't done that yet. He hasn't been awful -- Stanton owns a .227/.313/.455 batting line with seven homers this year -- but he's yet to have the kind of MVP caliber impact the Yankees expected when they traded for him over the winter.

With the Red Sox coming to town this week, Stanton is probability thrilled he'll get to face Pomeranz and Rodriguez, two lefties. His platoon splits this season are pretty stark:

AVG/OBP/SLG

OPS+

XBH

HR

Walk Rate

Strikeout Rate

vs. RHP

.190/.286/.324

70

8

3

10.1%

37.0%

vs. LHP

.370/.419/.963

271

7

4

9.7%

29.1%

Yikes! Stanton has always been better against left-handed pitchers, though we're talking about a guy who was above-average against righties and otherworldly against lefties throughout his career. So far this season Stanton has been legitimately terrible against righties. Against lefties though? Well, ask Dallas Keuchel about that.

Stanton went 7 for 13 during the three-game series at Fenway Park earlier this year. Given his struggles against right-handers in the early going, I'm guessing he's looking forward to seeing Pomeranz and Rodriguez the next three days.

Betts is a little banged up

If the season ended today -- which, thankfully, it doesn't (I'm not ready for no baseball) -- Mookie Betts would be the likely AL MVP. He's hitting .355/.434/.818 with an MLB leading 13 homers and more walks (14) than strikeouts (13). He even has a pair of three-homer games already.

Betts left Sunday's game with what the Red Sox called a right shoulder contusion after he was hit by an errant throw while running the bases. Manager Alex Cora is hopeful Betts will be in the lineup for Tuesday's series opener at Yankee Stadium.

Monday was an off-day for both teams, so Betts had a chance to rest his shoulder. Needless to say, the difference between Mookie and no Mookie for even one game could have a potentially huge impact on this week's series. He's one of the best and most dynamic players in baseball.

Prediction Time!

Might as well make a prediction, right? I'm going to say the Yankees win this series 2-1. The Yankees win Tuesday and Thursday but not Wednesday. Also, no brawls this week. I don't see that happening again. Five reasons for my prediction:

  1. Pomeranz has been really bad of late. It's not just the results. He doesn't look right. He's not doing the things he can normally do with the baseball.
  2. Porcello has been incredible this season and the Yankees can have trouble with righties with good velocity, as their recent series with the Astros and Indians showed. (Even though they won those games.)
  3. Despite having righty bats like Betts, Martinez, Hanley Ramirez, and Xander Bogaerts, the Red Sox are hitting a weak .228/.281/.368 (80 OPS+) against lefties this years. That bodes well for Sabathia.
  4. The Yankees are a monster at home. They are 14-5 at Yankee Stadium this season and have outscored their opponents by 51 runs in those 19 games. Few teams are built for their ballpark as well as the Yankees.
  5. As for the lack of a brawl, I don't think either team wants to get back into that just yet. Kelly and Austin just finished serving their suspensions. The bad blood is something that may resurface later in the year.

The Yankees winning two of three would put them in a tie with the Red Sox atop the AL East at 26-11. Then the 125-game mad dash to the finish begins.