Arguably the biggest rivalry in all of sports will have another installment added starting this weekend, as the Yankees and Boston Red Sox get set for a three-game series in the Bronx.

Aaron Judge said pregame Friday that these matchups with Boston are always ones he looks forward to considering the history between the two teams.

"Just the history behind it, it's something that's really important to us," Judge said. "It's a big one that I circle on my calendar."

The Yankees and Red Sox have already played nearly 60 games this season, but are only meeting for the first time this weekend -- something that doesn't usually happen between division rivals.

"Yeah man, I don't like it. I like playing these guys early and often," Judge said. "Just the intensity that it brings playing these guys, either at home or at Fenway [Park], you pick it up a notch playing these days -- especially with how well they're doing right now."

The Red Sox (33-23) are currently 2.5 GA of the Yankees (31-26), a shocking development from the team that came in last place in the AL East last season -- albeit a shortened one.

The Bombers have been a bit of a disappointment this season and aren't playing the way most people -- including Judge -- thought they would at this point of the year.

"You never want to be here, you want to be in first," Judge said. "There are concerns with a lot of things, but you can't hang your hat on those concerns. You've got to keep moving forward.

"If we're sitting here kicking ourselves about this, this and that, we're going to lose this upcoming series, upcoming games that we need to focus on. That's the big thing with baseball, it's not like football where you play one week and then 'ahh, I've got a whole week to prepare and talk about last week, get ready for this next one.' You've got time in between. In baseball, it's every day."

Picking up some key wins in this series to bring them closer to the top of the AL East leading Tampa Bay Rays would be huge for the Yankees' confidence.

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