Red Sox-Yankees ratings off from last year, still high

It was not as strong a draw as last year, but Red Sox-Yankees continues to deliver baseball’s highest ratings of the season.

Red Sox-Yankees averaged a 1.4 rating and 2.21 million viewers on ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball over the weekend, down 22% in ratings and 20% in viewership from the same matchup last year (1.8, 2.75M), but up 40% and 37% respectively from Dodgers-Mets in 2017 (1.0, 1.61M).

Play was delayed an hour due to rain, but the eventual 8:15 PM ET start was only slightly later than last year.

Despite the decline, the Yankees’ win delivered the second-largest Major League Baseball audience on cable this season. The high water mark is 2.40 million, set a week earlier by another Yankees-Red Sox game on Sunday Night Baseball.

It also tied the second-highest rating, trailing the previous week’s Yankees-Red Sox game (1.5) and tying a Yankees-Red Sox game from London in June.

All told, Yankees-Red Sox games account for four of the season’s five highest rated and most-watched games on cable. The lone exception is a Dodgers-Red Sox World Series rematch, which ranks fourth (1.3, 2.03M). It should be noted that none of those games earned as large an audience as the rivals’ two Sunday night meetings last year.

On Saturday, FS1 averaged a 0.39 and 587,000 for the first game of a Red Sox-Yankees doubleheader — down 13% in ratings and 16% in viewership from the same matchup in a later timeslot last year (0.45, 702K), but up 63% in both measures from Dodgers-Mets in ’17 (0.24, 361K). It ranks third among FS1 games this season, behind Yankees-Red Sox the previous week (643K) and Yankees-Indians in June (703K).

Their Friday matchup pulled a 0.31 and 471,000 (+1%) on MLB Network. Locally, Friday’s game averaged a season-high 4.6 rating on YES Network in New York, followed by a 3.7 for Saturday’s early game and a 3.8 for Saturday’s late game. Including Monday’s 4.4 for Yankees-Orioles, Yankees ratings are up 16% on YES since the All-Star break.

In other MLB action, Brewers-Cubs scored a 0.34 and 493,000 (+68%) on TBS Sunday afternoon; Angels-Indians had a 0.30 (flat) and 471,000 (+4%) on FS1 Saturday night.