NEW YORK — If the baseball gods are real, they apparently are poets — with a sense of humor.
After all of the Red Sox’ dramatic twists and turns, everything they have survived and figured out, they find themselves exactly where they were a season ago: playing the Yankees, at Yankee Stadium, in the best-of-three AL Wild Card Series beginning Tuesday night.
Because of course it’s the Yankees, not only their archrival but also their opposition at the three most significant inflection points of their past year. It was always the Yankees.
It was the Yankees last October, when Walpole native Cam Schlittler dominated in the winner-take-all Game 3, his first game against his childhood team, ending the Red Sox’ season.
It was the Yankees in April, when the Red Sox got outscored, 12-3, in a three-game sweep at Fenway Park, motivating franchise decision-makers to fire longtime manager Alex Cora.
It was the Yankees in June, when the Red Sox pulled off an out-of-nowhere four-game sweep, beating Schlittler and others, the first shred of evidence that they were capable of saving the season.
And here they are again. Here they go again.
“A real slobberknocker. It’s going to be a whole lot of fun,” said Payton Tolle, the Red Sox’ starting pitcher for Game 1. “No matter who [the first round is] against, you’re going to have to play [the Yankees] at some point. Yeah, it’s just going to be a fun night.”
With subplots galore, the pitching matchup is near the top of the list.
For the Yankees, it’s Schlittler, the local-kid-turned-hated-adversary, who has graduated from Game 3 rookie to Game 1 emerging ace. He is the extreme favorite to win the AL Cy Young Award.
For the Red Sox, it’s Tolle, who has ascended from bit reliever in last year’s edition to top billing this time. He entered Game 2 with the bases loaded in the eighth inning and faced one batter, retiring Trent Grisham to keep the Red Sox at a one-run deficit.
“It’s a great experience,” Tolle said. “Even just walking out there to the ‘pen last year, you see how much the fans interact, how bought in they are. You see how much it means. You get to hear how loud it gets and just try and turn that into white noise the best you can.”
Red Sox manager Chad Tracy said of Tolle’s Game 1 assignment: “I know his age, I know he’s a rookie, but as far as the way he approaches baseball and big moments, that part won’t bother him.”
Schlittler, a 25-year-old Northeastern alumnus, owns a 0.56 ERA and 0.90 WHIP in five career starts against the Red Sox. Each round has featured quite a bit of trolling from online Red Sox fans, with Schlittler sometimes hitting back.
“I wouldn’t say I’m always on my phone looking for that stuff,” said Schlittler, who after edging the Sox last postseason said he used as motivation Boston fans going at his family on the internet. “At the same time, I don’t really live under a rock as well. Found ways to use that to my advantage. I think I’m good at keeping receipts.”
As much as the Red Sox occupy the same position as a year ago, much has changed. Only four members of the starting lineup that took on Schlittler the first time remain: Jarren Duran, Trevor Story, Ceddanne Rafaela, and Wilyer Abreu.
They also have turned over the manager spot and much of the coaching staff, plus their entire short-series rotation, now featuring Tolle, Sonny Gray, and Ranger Suarez (as opposed to Garrett Crochet, Brayan Bello, and Connelly Early).
“They’re a team that pitches really, really well, and Payton Tolle is right in the middle of that or right at the top of that,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who will follow Schlittler with Max Fried in Game 2 and (if necessary) Gerrit Cole in Game 3.
And then there is Roman Anthony, who watched from afar last year, sidelined by an oblique injury.
“In an ideal situation, we’re at home in front of our fans,” Anthony said. “But we’ve been here before as a team, and the guys know what it takes. This is my first time around, obviously. We have the best fans in the world. So playing in front of them is obviously an advantage for us. But I think it just motivates us more to get back to them.”
The entire series will be at Yankee Stadium because the Yankees (93-68) nabbed the top wild card in the American League. The Red Sox (87-75) settled for the second.
With home-field advantage, the Yankees got first dibs on when they wanted to use the field during the workday day Monday. They decided on 3-7 p.m. — an unusually long stretch, extended to accommodate injured players getting work in.
That left the Red Sox with an option: Come in earlier than normal, or wait till late.
They opted for the former, a 1 p.m. workout delayed by the tail end of the weekend nor’easter that dumped rain on New York as it did Boston. Their abbreviated on-field session included defensive work — complete with pitchers fielding practice, a rarity after spring training — before they took batting practice inside.
“We had either this slot or a much later slot that would have pushed us pretty late in the evening,” Tracy said. “Left up to [the players] what they wanted to do.”
No matter. These Sox have been inconvenienced plenty in recent months, all just to end up back here, with a black-and-white, in-your-face opportunity to prove they are better now than they were last year.
Has this season been a success?
“Last time I checked, we’re still playing,” Tolle said, “so it’s too early to tell.”
Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.