The Red Sox are not kidding, they’re pretty serious about this most successful Major League Baseball (MLB) team this century. They just turned in the most dominant performance in their franchise history.
Boston added another feather to their colorful history, pocketing their fourth World Series title in 15 years. It is their ninth overall. These wins, along with their first five titles, the last of which is in 1918, sandwiched an 86-year title drought. It was in 2004 that they ended the “Curse of the Bambino”.
They also established a franchise-best 108 wins (out of 162 games) in the regular season to earn homefield advantage throughout the playoffs. The 108-season wins tie the sixth most in MLB history.
They recorded 119 wins including the post season, the third most all-time.
They faced the three toughest possible teams enroute to the title and ran over the trio.
The Red Sox struck out the Los Angeles Dodgers, 4-1, in the best of seven championship series, losing only Game 3 by one point. They were even poised to win this one, an 18-inning, 7 hour and 20 minute long game, but lost the chance as they scored the go-ahead run in their turn in the 13th inning but allowed the Dodgers to tie it in the bottom half due to a throwing error.
Game 3 became the longest World Series game by both innings and time, surpassing Game 2 of the 1916 World Series, when the same protagonists, Red Sox and Dodgers, played 14 innings; and Game 3 of the 2005 World Series, which lasted five hours and 41 minutes.
They earlier eliminated the Houston Astros, the defending champions, also to the tune of 4-1, to win the American League Championship Series. The Astros recorded the second-best wins this season at 103.
They initially ousted their heated rival New York Yankees in the American League Division Series, 3-1, to advance in the playoffs. The Yankees recorded 100 wins, the third best season record this year.
The Red Sox were brilliant in returning to the World Series this year.
They underwent total overhaul of their 2004, 2007, 2013 roster and became much younger, their current line-up averaging around 27 years.
They bid their long-time franchise player, David Ortiz, goodbye to retirement in 2016. Only veteran Dustin Pedrioa, Steven Wright, Brock Holt, and Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr, then rookies, were the remnants of their 2013 championship roster. Pedrioa and Wright were inactive, though, during the playoffs.
What’s more notable in this championship, compared to their other three during this century, is their being poised to establish a dynasty from here onwards because of their personnel, from the front office to their line-up.
President of Baseball Operations, Dave Drombrowski, hired just three years ago, made dazzling moves that became critical to their winning the crown, including hiring rookie manager, Alex Cora and releasing Hanley Ramirez, the opening day first baseman, late May.
Every member of their roster played like spokes of a wheel to make the whole team a potent and cohesive unit which can be depended on when the tough times come ahead.
As a matter of fact, every member will probably have a story to their grand kids about how they helped this Red Sox team win this championship:
Chris Sale, their Ace starter traded for in 2017, keys the entire pitching staff. He started, and won, Game One and threw the final pitch of Game Five. He also made the now infamous screaming speech in Game Four to spark a 9-run rally in the last three innings to bag the game.
Steve Pearce, the back-up first baseman who they traded for in the middle of the season, became the World Series MVP by hitting 4 for 12 in the World Series with three home runs and 8 RBIs. He became the fifth Red Sox player in history with a multi-homer game in the World Series.
To give a perspective of what value he has contributed to the Red Sox this series, he tied Ortiz’s World Series homeruns career totals of three in just two games. Ortiz played in three World Series totaling to 14 games!
David Price, the much maligned playoff choker starting pitcher, pitched brilliantly in his last three games. He might have been the World Series MVP had Pearce not hit his final homerun in the eighth inning of Game 5.
Bradley, Jr., the defensive centerfielder who hits ninth, was the other unlikely MVP (in the ALCS) who pushed the Sox to the championship round. Bradley had just three hits in the five games against the Astros but they packed lots of poison that they resulted to nine RBIs.
Bradley drilled in a bases-clearing double that gave Boston a lead it never relinquished in Game 2. He then send the ball to the stands off Houston closer Roberto Osuna for a grand slam in Game 3. Finally, his two-run homer in the sixth inning of Game 4 gave the Red Sox the lead for good.
Mitch Moreland, first baseman, resigned for a two-year deal during the offseason after in Boston for only one before and playing injured during the world series, hit a three-run homerun in the seventh inning of Game 4 to spark the Boston comeback.
Outfielder/designated hitter J.D. Martinez, signed from free agency in the offseason, and outfielder Betts was their staple hitters all throughout the year.
Pitcher Nathan Eovaldi, also acquired midseason, pitched in the marathon third game on a very short rest.
Andrew Benintendi, outfielder, came up with game saving catches, third baseman Rafael Devers came up with timely hits, pitcher Rick Porcello, started the other games and Craig Kimbrel, who made things interesting in multiple games by allowing runners to get on base but still took care of matters as the Red Sox closer.
Ian Kinsler, also acquired midseason, took over the herculean task of manning second base left by Pedrioa.
Of course, Mookie Betts and JD Martinez, their star outfielder and designated hitter, were the primary engines that carried them throughout the year.
Not forgotten at all is Cora who maneuvered the line-up and positioned each and every one to a spot where they could be most successful.
This win should purge all doubts to any baseball fan still believes the Red Sox are still under curse.
And their detractors will have to bear hearing Neil Diamond’s soft rock hit, a staple in the eighth inning of Red Sox games since 2002, in playoff games as the being World Series contenders of these Boston Red Sox has no end in sight yet.
By: ARMANDO M. BOLISLIS
