The Boston Red Sox have won the 2018 World Series against the Los Angeles Dodgers. With their 5-1 victory in Game 5 on Sunday, they sealed their ninth triumph overall and their first since 2013, with a laser-sharp focus and an attitude that is untypical of baseball being the main factors behind the triumph.
“This is the largest Red Sox team ever,” said team owner John Henry on the field at Dodger Stadium when handing over the Commissioner’s Trophy to its new owner. The Red Sox won 119 games, making them the second-best champion of all time after victories (Yankees 1998: 125 victories).
After 108 victories in the Regular Season – for this franchise the most in its history – the Red Sox eliminated with the New York Yankees (100 victories) and Houston Astros (103) two more teams with at least 100 victories in the Regular Season on the way to the Classic case. Afterwards, the Dodgers on paper almost looked like a violent underdog, having won “only” 92 victories.
But they presented themselves as a tough challenge for a team on a mission. Especially in game 3, which lasted 7:20 hours, they proved that they could be on a par. However, the Dodgers also played or pitched almost perfectly that evening. But this was also necessary to keep up with the Red Sox somehow. They did not do this in the other encounters.
Too good and too unyielding were the Sox, who especially in one discipline acted incredibly effective: Hitting with runners in scoring position and two outs. In short, they were brutally effective and used almost 50 percent of these opportunities. It’s exactly what can break a team’s neck in a tight game. And Boston broke some of them!
They beat .420 in these situations and had a 1,347 OPS with 40 runs. Jackie Bradley Jr. alone came in the postseason on ten RBI with two outs and “RISP”. The JBJ who hardly got anything on the chain in the Regular Season and became an unexpected hero – and MVP – in the ALCS against the Astros. And he wasn’t by any means the only unexpected hero for this team.
But what is the secret of this special success? According to FOX expert Hall-of-Famer John Smoltz, it was the calm on the record. Unlike other teams, the Red Sox didn’t try to do too much. And most importantly, they refused to enlarge the strike zone. Say: They didn’t help out the pitchers and only swung on strikes. Many other teams became more aggressive and harmed themselves on these occasions, while the Red Sox became more focused.
In addition – and this is probably the main reason for this incredibly constant season – they all presented themselves extremely selfless. No one wanted to be the hero, everyone tried to contribute their share to the success of the team. If you’re not over-aggressive on the record, you also take numerous walks, enabling the next hitter to step on the record and have a chance. The Sox did just that. Simple singles have the same effect, where others want to hit home runs with all their might – and help their opponents.
This selflessness was even more evident in the pitching. Everybody talks in every postseason about “all hands on deck” having to be for every game. But nobody lived this like this team! All four starters of this postseason – exactly five, because Eduardo Rodriguez finally started game 4 of the series – were also active in the bullpen.
Sale got the last three outs of the series after he had already opened them with game 1. Price pitched out of the pen against the Astros and Eovaldi pitched until he dropped in the marathon game 3, after he had already been substituted in games 1 and 2 respectively. So much commitment, so much devotion and so much sheer indifference as far as one’s own well-being is concerned is otherwise rarely seen. For Boston, however, it was a matter of course.
Manager Alex Cora, who after Terry Francona (2004) and John Farrell (2013) also won the World Series with the Red Sox in his first year – and he as a true rookie manager – even had a name for this substitute starter: “Rover”. He planned to have one of those in every inning, by all accounts.
Of course he didn’t do that of his own free will, because he had a few weaknesses to cover up. Neither Matt Barnes nor Joe Kelly have been overly reliable lately. But they also dominated the playoffs. Towards the end, actually, no relief left anything to be desired.
There were some heroes for Boston on the way to the ultimate triumph. Let’s take Steve Pearce, who grew up a Red Sox fan. The definition of a “Journeyman” – he already played for all five teams of the American League East – only came to Boston in the course of the year by trade and should actually only be a favorable supplement against left-handers at first base to relieve left-handers Mitch Moreland.
And he turned it on. All in all, he came up with eight RBI in this series – four of them in the ultimately decisive game 4 of the World Series. He provided the dramatic balance with his home run in the eighth inning. And he was the one who put the lid on it with his Bases-Clearing 3-Run-Double in the ninth inning.
With his two home runs in Game 5, Pearce also secured the World Series MVP title. And through his three World Series Homeruns he set the Red Sox Single World Series record for home runs by a certain Carl Yastrzemski!
But for the “Go-Ahead-Run”, the ultimate lead in the game, another unexpected hero took care of it: Rookie-Third-Baseman Rafael Devers! Devers, who was always critically eyed in the season due to his expandable defense and only conditionally continued his electrifying debut at the end of 2017, immediately provided a series of clutch hits in this postseason. The 3-Run-Shot against Houston in game 4, which pulled the astros’ tooth, is especially memorable.
In the World Series, he not only made his important hit in match 4, but also the final RBI hit to win 5:3 in match 1. His Platoon partner Eduardo Nunez brought this game out of reach with his 3-Run-Shot and is also one that nobody would have expected in a big moment.
Boston also did everything right with its personnel decisions. First and foremost, J.D. Martinez paid off. The Outfielder and Designated Hitter delivered a season as painted. He followed in the footsteps of David Ortiz as a free agent and became the number 1 power hitter for this team. He brought back the element that had been missing from this team in 2017.
The trades also hit during the season: Pearce came from the Blue Jays, Eovaldi from the Rays. The potential MVP-year of Mookie Betts, who is the engine of this troop and as lead-off hitter fired the best offense of the league from the top, finally made the thing round.
Betts and Martinez embody something like the essence of this team: a perfect mix of their own plants and (expensive) free agents. Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Devers, Xander Bogaerts, Bradley, Kelly, Barnes are probably the most prominent players from the Sox farm system. In addition, there are the high-calibre purchases such as Price (7 years/217 million dollars), Martinez (5/110 million) and Porcello (4/82.5 million) as well as the high-profile trade acquisitions Sale and Kimbrel, which have cost quite a bit of talent.
They all formed a unit that marched through the season and only became the 13th team since 1969 to win the title with the best result of the Regular Season (108-54). In an impressive manner with only three defeats in the postseason overall.
The fact that they were also the most expensive team does not have to be interpreted negatively. The Dodgers had by far the highest payroll in the past four years and have been waiting for a title for 30 years now.
The Red Sox went into the season with the biggest payroll, as well as one of the top favorites, and completed their Hollywood-ready mission in Hollywood. They were simply unstoppable in 2018.
This article was published without prior review by Major League Baseball.