Once again, the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry gave ESPN a boost in the ratings.
Sunday’s Yankees/Red Sox game drew a 3.0 U.S. rating and 4.6 million viewers on ESPN, tied with two other Yankees/Red Sox games on ESPN as the highest rated MLB telecast of the season on broadcast or cable.
The game drew a 14.6 rating in Boston and a 9.7 in New York.
To put the numbers in perspective, Yankees/Red Sox could not match a NASCAR race on ESPN the previous night (3.3 rating, 5.3 million viewers). The game also drew a lower rating — but slightly more viewers — than a Monday Night Football preseason game on ESPN earlier in the week.
Still, the game finished as the 8th most-viewed program of the week on cable.
