The Price Was Right

After the Boston Red Sox dominated their way through the post-season, going 11-3 and downing the Los Angeles Dodgers four games to one in the World Series, I had to consider that this is one of the best teams ever, at least of this century. They won 108 games in the regular season, and were able to attack from up and down the lineup, and get great pitching when they needed it.

Of all the factoids regarding this team, such as their stellar ability to get two-out hits, is that there is only one player on this team, Xander Boegarts, that was on the last Red Sox championship team, in 2013. That means there was almost a complete turnover of the team in five years. While other teams take years to rebuild, the Red Sox really can't afford to, given their hypercritical fanbase (there was the nightmare Bobby Valentine season of 2012, when the Sox finished last, but came back the following season to win at all). Much of the credit goes to Dave Dombrowski, whom the Tigers should have hung on to. He has taken three teams to the World Series, with two winners, and is probably a Hall of Famer.

The Red Sox never really let their foot go off the pedal. In each of three series they did lose one game, but it took 18 innings for them to lose to the Dodgers in game three, which was the longest game in World Series history, both by innings and time (a torturous seven hours). Otherwise they simply wore the Dodgers down. In today's game, the team that wins has the better bullpen, and while Craig Kimbrel was shaky (game four of the ALDS against the Yankees must have had the bowels of Red Sox nation clenched), others like Joe Kelly and members of the starting staff were up to the challenge. Even Nate Eovaldi, who lost game three, did yeoman work, pitching six innings in relief before Max Muncy finally ended it with a walk-off home run.

Though the series won't be recalled as a great one, like any World Series there is plenty to talk about. As usual, managers are second-guessed, which is strictly a twenty-twenty hindsight proposition. In game one, Red Sox skipper Alex Cora sent up Eduardo Nunez to pinch hit. Nunez actually had a negative bWar for the season, and sending him up to hit seemed futile. But he smacked a three-run home run to ice the game. Cora was hailed as a genius, or at least extremely lucky.

In game four, which turned out to be the pivotal game of the Series, Rich Hill had allowed three hits and had just struck out a batter when he was pulled by Dodgers manager Dave Roberts with a 4-0 lead. He brought in Scott Alexander, who promptly walked the next hitter on four pitches. He then brought in Ryan Madson, who was having a terrible series, allowing all five of his inherited runners to score. It only got worse for poor Madson. His first hitter, Mitch Moreland, smacked a three-run homer that added two more inherited runners scored. The carnage didn't stop, as Roberts brought in four pitchers after that, and each allowed one run. When it was all over the Sox won 9-6.

Roberts got a lot of heat for that, even from President Trump (on the day of a mass shooting, no less). Controversy reigned as Hill was reported to tell Roberts "Keep an eye on me." The mania for going to the bullpen when a pitcher still seems to have great stuff is one that managers seem to subscribe to, and this time it bit Roberts in the ass. Of course, if his bullpen could have been effective he would have been hailed as a genius.

Cora did that with David Price in game five. He stuck with Price into the eighth, and only used three pitchers for the night, ending with Chris Sale, a sentimental move as well as a strategic one, for the ninth. Steve Pearce got the MVP award for his bat, but I think Price should've gotten it, winning two games and pitching scoreless relief in a third. His redemption, after being winless in 11 straight playoff appearances, was the individual story of the Series.

The Red Sox are a team that excels in the first part of the century. In the early 1900s, they won five titles, the last in 1918. They didn't win another the rest of the century. So far, in nineteen years, they have won four titles, this last being 2018. I'm sure Red Sox fans don't like hearing the joke that they will now have to wait another 86 years for another. Who knows? It may be that Boston is underwater by then.