Major League Baseball has locked in the Wild Card schedule, and the Red Sox-Yankees matchup will land in the 8 p.m. slot with NBC handling the broadcast.
That announcement immediately caught the attention of Red Sox fans because of who will be in the booth. Jason Benetti will be on play-by-play, joined by NESN’s Lou Merloni as the Red Sox analyst.
But New York will have more familiar voices near its own clubhouse: former Yankees manager Joe Girardi and former Yankees first baseman Anthony Rizzo will also be part of the broadcast. Rizzo had been NBC’s sideline reporter this season, but he is moving into the booth for the series, with Caroline Pineda taking over sideline duties.
“Jason Benetti will call the Red Sox-Yankees series alongside Lou Merloni, Joe Girardi, Anthony Rizzo and reporter Caroline Pineda.
- Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) September 27, 2026”
For Boston fans, the setup feels lopsided. The usual playoff expectation is a neutral broadcast, the kind that keeps the focus on the game without giving either side the sense that the booth is leaning one way or the other. Even when former players have been involved in those telecasts, they’ve generally been able to keep things balanced when covering their old teams.
NBC has taken a different approach this season. The network has used a three-man booth with the play-by-play voice flanked by analysts tied closely to each team, and the format has drawn a strong response. Sports Media Watch reported that NBC averaged 2.7 million viewers per Sunday Night Baseball broadcast, the highest mark since 2007.
Now that same setup is creating a different kind of reaction for this series. Red Sox fans will hear a former Yankees manager and a former Yankees player alongside one Boston analyst, and that imbalance is exactly what is bothering them. Even if Girardi or Rizzo are discussing the Red Sox directly, it’s not hard to see why Boston viewers would feel the broadcast is tilted.
For fans in New England, the hope is simple: beat the Yankees. The problem is that plenty of them will be watching from the couch, and this booth arrangement has already made the viewing experience feel a little less clean than they wanted.
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Red Sox Rookie Suddenly Enters Yankees Wild Card Pitching Debate
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Manager Chad Tracy still has a few pitching calls to make depending on how the series unfolds, and Bennetts outing only adds to the conversation. For a Red Sox staff that already has its starters mapped out, the bigger question may be how much trust Bennett has earned for October leverage, and whether his unexpected late-season push can turn into a real postseason role against their biggest rival. [Read more 🡒]