The Big Lead

Fox Sports scores massive hit with Red Sox-Yankees telecast

The most-watched regular season baseball game in three years wasn't particularly close, but it did feature the Red Sox and Yankees and that might have been enough.

By J.P. Hoornstra

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (35) pitches against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Saturday.
Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Garrett Crochet (35) pitches against the New York Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. / Brad Penner-Imagn Images
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Saturday's game between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees might not have been a historic clash of titans that will go down in the annals of a storied rivalry, but the Red Sox's 10-7 victory was a major boon to Fox Sports.

The network reported ratings for the game were the highest for any Saturday regular season baseball broadcast on the network in seven years.

The 3,045,000 estimated viewers, per Nielsen, represented the highest viewership for a Saturday MLB game on Fox since an estimated 3.2 million tuned in for a Chicago Cubs-St. Louis Cardinals game in June 2018.

The game was the most-watched regular season MLB broadcast, on any day on any network, since 2022.

MORE: Dodgers-Yankees ratings show why MLB continues to play the hits

Boston trailed 3-1 after two innings, then scored seven runs to take the lead for good. The Yankees' two-run rally in the eighth inning made the final score closer than the game felt.

Whether the ratings surge represented the lack of programming competition from other networks, kids being out of school for the summer, or the presence of Sox ace Garrett Crochet facing Yankees slugger Aaron Judge — or some combination thereof — the formula worked.

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The ratings represented a 61 percent boost compared to Fox's 2024 average of 1.895 million viewers.

ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball telecast also featured the Red Sox and Yankees, a game that peaked at 2.2 million viewers with an average of 1.9 million. Both of those figures were actually down from the June 1 SNB broadcast of the Dodgers-Yankees game in Los Angeles, which likely benefitted from the bicoastal audience.

Fox reported 2.2 million viewers for its Dodgers-Yankees Saturday telecast on May 31.

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