BOSTON — Think of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry this way.
Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier fight 19 times across six months then in a best-of-five affair in October for a chance at the heavyweight title.
The hatred is there for 19 bouts and seeps out of every pore in each man’s skin. Yet when the title is on the line, they will clutch, stick thumbs in each other’s eyes and hit below the belt because anything goes against a blood rival.
Now that the Red Sox and Yankees are postseason foes for the first time since the memorable 2004 ALCS in which Boston lost the first three games and won the next four to get to the World Series, the emotions will be hard to check for teams that dislike each other and brawled on Fenway Park’s hallowed ground on May 11 after Joe Kelly hit Tyler Austin.