Can Chris Sale, Baby Bombers jump-start Red Sox-Yankees rivalry?

It has been six years since the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees both won 90 or more games in the same season, eight years since they reached the postseason together and 13 years since they last faced each other in October. Though their storied rivalry never fully dissolved - there was always an opposing villain, a David Ortiz or Alex Rodriguez, to jeer, and one or the other team was good enough to make the playoffs in each year of that span except for 2014 - it remains a far cry from its mid-2000s glory days.

But this could be the year the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry moves back into national relevance. As the American League East foes prepare to meet for the first time this season, in a three-game series beginning Tuesday night at Fenway Park, it feels like the start of a completely new chapter in their head-to-head history.

For one thing, Ortiz and Rodriguez have both retired in the past nine months - in the case of Ortiz, it seems prudent to add "at least for now" - making this the first season without either one of them gracing the rivalry in a decade and a half.

But even more interesting are the newer pieces now in place on the respective sides, players who will be central characters if the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is to regain its prominence - beginning with the Red Sox's starting pitcher on Wednesday night.

Chris Sale has faced the Yankees 10 times in his career, including seven starts, and has gone 4-1 with a 1.17 ERA. But on Wednesday, the former Chicago White Sox ace, a five-time all-star and the 2015 AL strikeout king, will be facing New York for the first time in a Red Sox uniform, after a December trade that brought him to Boston for four prospects.

It was after that trade that Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman called the Red Sox the "Golden State Warriors of baseball" - which could have been a bit of gamesmanship, but was more likely simply a rival GM reacting to the sheer amount of elite talent the Red Sox have compiled.

Through four starts for the Red Sox, Sale has lived up to his billing, posting a 0.91 ERA, striking out 42 batters in 29 ⅔ innings and evoking memories of Pedro Martinez in 1999 and Roger Clemens in 1986 among the Fenway faithful. In his last start, Thursday in Toronto, Sale threw 80 of his 102 pitches for strikes and struck out 13 batters in eight scoreless innings.

That game, however, resulted in a no-decision for Sale, when Manager John Farrell pulled him after 102 pitches with a 1-0 lead in favor of closer Craig Kimbrel, only to see Kimbrel blow the save - a decision that was roundly criticized in Boston and that Farrell felt badly enough about to visit Sale the next day in the clubhouse to talk it through.

"Every inning he's pitched has been a high-stress inning," Farrell said of Sale. "We've scored four runs in four games for him. A lot is made about how [few] pitches he threw [against Toronto]. But every one of them was high-stress. When we've created some issues by not executing a play defensively he has stepped up and slammed the door shut."

Sale, 28 and bound to the Red Sox through 2019, helps give the Red Sox the best core of young players in the American League, joining left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who is 22, shortstop Xander Bogaerts and right fielder Mookie Betts, who are 24, and center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr., who is 27.

"Obviously, they really turned the corner last year with some of their young players," Yankees third baseman Chase Headley said, "and I don't think we're too far behind with some of our young players. So maybe the rivalry isn't to the level it once was, but it's also not too far away from being that good again."

Though the Yankees are a couple of years behind the Red Sox in their development of young talent, theirs is coming as well, with 24-year-old right fielder Aaron Judge (six homers in 17 games and a slash line of .279/.343/.639) in the midst of a breakthrough season and 24-year-old Gary Sanchez (currently on the disabled list) already established as one of the best young catchers in the game. Luis Severino, a 23-year-old right-hander who starts the series-opener for the Yankees on Tuesday night, is coming off back-to-back double-digit strikeout performances. And the Yankees have more talent on the way, having built a farm system rated as the second-best in the game by Baseball America.

Judge, a 6-foot-7, 282-pound mountain of a man who hits tape-measure homers, will be appearing at Fenway Park - and as a right-handed hitter, taking aim at the Green Monster - for the first time in his career. Asked if he's curious to get his first glimpse of Judge, Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia grinned.

"I have cable," he said.

Pedroia said he goes into every year assuming the Yankees will be in contention at the end, no matter the stage of their transition. "They definitely have a bunch of very young and talented players, but with that organization, you always count them in at the end," he said. "Even last year [when the Yankees traded veterans for prospects in July and August], everyone thought they were punting, and they were there still in it until the last week. They're always going to compete for a title - I don't care what their circumstances are."

Though it is still too early in the season to reach strong conclusions, both the Red Sox and Yankees look as if they might have staying power. A near-unanimous preseason pick to run away with the division, Boston is 11-8, despite a major flu outbreak and the elbow injury that has kept David Price sidelined until at least mid-May; the Yankees are a surprising 11-7, including an eight-game winning streak during which they outscored the Rays, Cardinals and White Sox by a combined 49-22.

Both the Yankees and Red Sox, of course, will have to deal with the Baltimore Orioles, who stand in first place, two games ahead of the Yankees in the AL East, with the best winning percentage in the majors. But their head-to-head battles stand to take on extra relevance this year, not only because of what it means for the 2017 standings, but for what it means for the future of baseball's most compelling rivalry.