BOSTON -- Last week, as the Boston Red Sox were still churning toward a division championship, David Price observed a difference between this year's conquest of the American League East and last year's.
"We didn't play meaningful baseball games at the end of the year last year," Price said. "You play meaningful baseball games for 160 to 162 games, that keeps everybody on their toes."
And so, as the Red Sox party after clinching back-to-back AL East titles for the first time in franchise history, they should pause to toast an assist from an unlikely source: the New York Yankees.