How the 2018 Boston Red Sox Got to the World Series
The Boston Red Sox are the champions of the American League for the 2018 Major League Baseball season.
That statement is one that, right now, does not shock anyone. The Red Sox, coming off of a season in which they won a team-record 108 games, would obviously be primed to make a considerable run at the World Series trophy when all is said-and-done. But if we go back to the beginning of the 2018 campaign, there was much skepticism surrounding this ballclub. Let’s re-visit why:
When the 2017 Boston Red Sox season ended in a heartbreaking Game 4 loss to the Houston Astros in the 2017 ALDS, it was almost as if a cloud had come over the team that would never go away. The starting rotation was terrible, there wasn’t any timely hitting for the team, the bullpen was blowing games, and the Red Sox had lost 6 out of 7 playoff games in a two year span. Following the series, John Farrell, the manager who led the Sox to the 2013 World Series title in his first year with the team, was removed as the manager effective-immediately. A couple of weeks later, the Red Sox found their man, ironically in the form of Houston Astros bench coach Alex Cora, a member of the Sox 2007 world championship team. Maybe a little foreshadowing of what was in store for the 2018 season? Who knows.
Then December rolls around. The Winter Meetings. One of the very first moves made of the Meetings was the New York Yankees, the Red Sox bitter rival, trading their mediocre second baseman Starlin Castro for the reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton, who was coming off a 59 home run season. All of a sudden, the back-to-back AL East champion Red Sox were on the outside looking in at a Yankees team that looked unstoppable. Stanton, Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Greg Bird, Didi Gregorius: All of the baseball world saw this lineup as a powerhouse that was destined to barrage their way to victories left-and-right. But the Red Sox had a trick up their sleeve.
The biggest name of the free agent class of 2017 was easily J.D. Martinez. Martinez, coming off of a career year in which he slugged 45 home runs and 104 RBI’s for the Tigers and Diamondbacks was primed to take home at least $200 million. But something weird happened in the off-season: No free agents were signing. As spring training was approaching, many of the huge name free agents were left on the market, and forced the players to accept contracts that they weren’t originally intending on signing. Martinez was likely one of them. He settled on a 5 year, $110 million with the Boston Red Sox, and Dave Dombrowski had found his guy to compete with the wrecking crew that the Yankees had assembled.
J.D. Martinez’s impact on the Red Sox cannot be overstated. Through his own personal hitting beliefs and approach, he was able to re-kindle the magic that Mookie Betts had in his 2016 MVP runner-up season. The two are both self-admitted “psychopaths” when it comes to their preparation and determination to be the best hitter in baseball. Through their hitting philosophies, they were able to teach their own teammates some things they hadn’t done before, as players like Mitch Moreland, Xander Bogaerts, and Jackie Bradley Jr. have admitted to how much being in the same room with J.D. Martinez and Mookie Betts helps their own personal hitting abilities. What the Red Sox got out of J.D. Martinez wasn’t just a productive player (he hit 43 home runs and drove in 130 runs), they got a leader who immediately bought into what the team was trying to do, and helped his teammates get better every single day.
When the playoffs rolled around and the Red Sox were 108-54, best record in the Major Leagues, some people were still skeptical on how good the team actually was. The starting rotations health had been spotty at times throughout the season, and the bullpen had faltered many times. Their offense’s resilience was the one spot that had remained a constant for the team, and they hadn’t exactly been setting the world on fire going into the playoffs. And as luck would have it, Boston would be squaring up with the Yankees in the ALDS, who had just beaten the Oakland A’s in the AL Wild Card game.
After a game one victory for the Red Sox, the Yankees came into Fenway Park for game two licking their chops. They were facing David Price, who has historically been terrible both against the Yankees, and in the playoffs. It wasn’t much of a surprise to see Aaron Judge homer and Gary Sanchez homer twice in the game. But after the game, a Yankees superstar may have ignited a fire within the Red Sox clubhouse. Aaron Judge was recorded blasting the famous song “New York, New York” over a boombox as he was leaving the clubhouse after the game, a real cocky move for what was a 1-1 series in a best of 5 style round. It likely angered the Red Sox, who laid an ass-whooping on the Yankees 16-1 in game 3 at Yankee Stadium, a game in which Brock Holt hit for the first cycle in the history of Postseason baseball. Ultimately, game 4 was a rollercoaster ride, as the Red Sox looked like they had an easy win in the bag, until Craig Kimbrel made it interesting in the 9th. But he held on, and the Red Sox had eliminated their storied rival from postseason contention, moving onto the ALCS to face the Houston Astros, a familiar franchise to rookie manager Alex Cora. It’s funny how some things work out.
The Houston Astros were many people’s favorite to win the World Series this year. Coming off of the world championship last year, they only got better as they added Gerrit Cole who had a career year, and Alex Bregman turned himself into an MVP caliber player.
What Bregman couldn’t do, though, is keep his mouth shut against a Red Sox team that mopped the floor with anybody who provided them with bulletin-board material. Much like the early season “damage” comments that Brian Cashman had about the Yankees being the only team who did “real damage” to the Red Sox, and Aaron Judge’s boombox playing Frank Sinatra, Alex Bregman decided to post video footage on his Instagram account of the Astros hitting back-to-back-to-back home runs against Nathan Eovaldi, the Red Sox game 3 starter, stating that he was doing some “video work.”
Opening this can of worms ultimately led to the demise of the Houston Astros, who lost all 3 games at home against the Red Sox, getting carved up by Eovaldi in game 3 and in game 5 when he came out of the bullpen. The Red Sox bullpen has been fairly lock-down (outside of Craig Kimbrel), and David Price threw an absolute gem in game 5, throwing 6 shutout inning with 9 strikeouts and 0 walks, en route to his first postseason win, the clincher for the American League champion Boston Red Sox.
As the Red Sox head into the World Series and await their competitor in either the Brewers or the Dodgers, they have to be on cloud 9. They are firing on all cylinders, and get some much needed rest for guys like the recently hospitalized Chris Sale, the overused Craig Kimbrel, and the lineup that has been fairly steady since the playoffs have started. This Boston Red Sox team can very likely be looking at their fourth World Series title since 2004 in these next few weeks.