As the Red Sox look to get past the Yankees in the postseason, they’ll have to get through a pitcher who grew up rooting for them.
The Red Sox-Yankees rivalry has always been fierce, but it's more complicated for people who knew New York ace Cam Schlittler from his days growing up in Walpole, Massachusetts.
It's post-season baseball, and the Red Sox and Yankees are on the hunt for October.
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WATCH HERECara Eckstein was in the pro shop at Fenway Park looking for new merchandise to cheer the team on from her home in New Hampshire. She believes the rivalry is healthy.
"Of course it is," joked Eckstein. "Everybody has to hate the Yankees."
"I'm a Cam Schlittler fan. I hope he does well," said Walpole High School baseball coach Chris Costello, who coached the American League Cy Young Award candidate. "He worked hard, he kept his head down."
Schlittler pitching for the Yankees complicates Costello's rooting interest.
"Always going to be rooting for Cam, but this should be a dandy tonight," he said.
Dr. Ted Green, a psychologist at Tufts Medical Center, said the storied rivalry can actually be considered healthy.
"If you look at psychological research, how many good things have come out of 86 years of suffering Red Sox fans," said Green. "Research shows that rivalries — the losing is just as important as the winning. And we did a lot of losing."
But has the rivalry matured?
"A lot of resilience, and knowing that we always show up, even through the misery and not expecting to win, so it did have its growth moments," said Green.
At the end of the day, Costello say he still roots for his lifelong passion.
"Go Sox," he said.
He'll be watching his start pitcher with one of Schlittler's other coaches. They hope he has seven perfect innings before he's pulled, and the Sox get some hits to pull out a win.
