Another year, another early playoff exit.

I get it. I do. The Yankees weren’t quite ready. There were a couple of teams out there that were simply better than we were. We won 100 games and still only had the third best record in baseball. We had injuries, we had stuff not break our way.

But did we have to get knocked out by Boston?

Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like we’re talking about a bunch of scrubs. They won games in bunches and finished the regular season with a record of 108-54. Their pitching staff is impressive, and the ace of that staff may just win the Cy Young Award. They have two legitimate MVP candidates and a boatload of young, talented players. They dethroned the defending champions and are the odds-on favorite to win the World Series. They’re a great team, and it pains me to say it.

But, really? Boston?

Losing to the Red Sox feels wrong, like the hybrid offspring of a lion and a pit bull. It upsets the natural order of the universe and fundamental properties of spacetime, as reported in one of the later editions of Stephen Hawking’s Theory of Everything.* Plainly speaking, it ain’t supposed to happen. It’s been a couple of weeks, and I’m still not sure how it did. We’ll hear about how Aaron Judge subtly trolling the Red Sox locker room by playing “New York, New York” on his speakers after Game 2’s win inspired their play, especially if they beat the Dodgers. We’ll hear that, with the exception the back end of Game 1, all of Game 2, and a part of Game 3, Boston was simply the better team. They outhit, outpitched, and generally outplayed us. We’ll hear about Aaron Boone’s managerial inexperience coming to the fore, or about the lack of depth in our starting rotation. Some of these things are even valid points.

But did it have to be Boston?

Those guys celebrated on our home field twice: once when they clinched the East, then again when they won the ALDS. The second celebration was punctuated by them playing “New York, New York” in the visiting locker room. That is a huge slap in the face—five across the eyes—to the Yankees. It’s war next season. They celebrated by beating the team that knocked them out last year. Now they’re back in the World Series, and all us Yankee fans can do is cheer mightily against them. I’ve said repeatedly that every time a Boston team loses, an angel gets its wings. Here’s hoping that there are at least four more wingless angels looking to put their thumbs on the scale.

*Theory of Everything doesn’t have a reference to the Red Sox beating the Yankees. But it should.

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