WATCH: Who's favorite in AL East, Yankees or Red Sox?

by Felix Pantaleón

The Yankees are Red Sox ended their series at Yankee Stadium tied for first place in the AL East with identical best-in-baseball 26-11 records.

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NEW YORK — Almost a quarter of the way through the 2018 baseball season, the Yankees and Red Sox were tied atop the American League East standings with 26-11 records after their showdown series at Yankee Stadium.

The Yankees lost on Thursday night 5-4, but won two out of three.

Last month, the Red Sox did the same when the clubs played three at Fenway Park, so after six meetings they’re both 3-3.

And how about this:

The Red Sox had their best start ever this season, winning 17 of their first 19 before splitting their next 18 games, and the Yankees did the same in reverse, splitting the first 18 before winning 17 of 19.

That’s pretty wild, huh?

Based off of what we’ve seen so far, these two age-old rivals probably will be in a close fight all season long for the division title.

Or maybe not.

You could make a case that the Yankees are trending upward in a big way while the Red Sox have been just mediocre for the last 2 1/2 weeks.

Who should be the division favorite?

Watch the video above for takes on that from Yankees beat writers Randy Miller and Brendan Kuty of NJ Advance Media.

Here are other recent Yankees posts to check out:

— Yankees takeaways from night J-Lo, A-Rod witness big rally, streak-ending loss

— What little things Gleyber Torres, Miguel Andujar are doing to amaze Neil Walker

— What we learned about Yankees during historic 17-1 run

— WATCH: Shohei Ohtani who? Masahiro Tanaka shows some pop

— Aaron Boone: Why Yankees won’t ever make Mets lineup blunder