Red Sox Rule Baseball

Winning 108 regular season games was just the tip of the iceberg for the 2018 Boston Red Sox. By the time the dust settled, Boston had completed a five game series victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers, giving the Red Sox their 9th World Series title in franchise history. In this five game series, Boston proved why it had been one of baseball's most dominating teams all season long. It took pitching help from the starters having to come out of the pen for Boston, but they got the job done in the series.

When the series kicked off in Boston, Andrew Benintendi and J. D. Martinez drove in the first two runs in the series and they never looked back, coming away with an 8-4 win. They followed it up with a 4-2 in game two. Once the series switched to Los Angeles for game three, it was turned into an instant classic. Los Angeles pulled out their only win in an instant classic. Max Muncy was the hero, hitting a walk off home run in the 18th inning of a 7 hour 20 minute marathon. It was not only a 3-2 win for the Dodgers, but it appeared to give them life in the series. This game made history, as it actually lasted longer than an entire Series. The 1939 World Series between the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds took 7 hours and 5 minutes, while game three took 7 hours and 20 minutes.

You'd like to think that this series would go back in the Dodgers favor. Boston shook it off and came away with a 9-6 win in game four. They closed out the series with a dominating 5-1 win in game five to seal the series. Steve Pearce had himself a series, claiming MVP honors hitting .333 in the series with three home runs (including two in game five) and drove in eight runs, with a 1.167 slugging percentage. Pearce joins Mike Lowell, Manny Ramariez and David Ortiz as the only Red Sox players to win Series MVP. Pearce belting those two home runs in game five, putting him in the books with Babe Ruth and Ted Kluszewski as the only players 35 or older to have a multi-homer World Series game.

Another interesting side note is that Chris Sale becomes the 9th pitcher in history to record the first and last out in a World Series. The others are Babe Adams (1909), Ernie Shore (1916), Art Nehf (1922), Waite Hoyt (1928), Lefty Gomez (1937), Paul Derringer (1940), Spud Chandler (1943), and Hal Newhouser (1945).

And look at what the Red Sox had to do to claim this title. They defeated a 100 win team in the Yankees in the ALDS, then beat a 103 win club in the defending world champion Astros in the ALCS. Then to cap it off, they beat the back to back National League champion Dodgers. In the 14 games that Boston played in the playoffs, they lost only three times all playoffs long, which is saying something. After all the totaling was done, Boston finished this season with a 119-57 record.

Now you can't take anything away from what the Dodgers did. They've won the NL West for the 6th year in a row and made the World Series in back to back years. They just ran into a really good team in Boston. They had the pitching going all series long. Price was great all series, posting a 1/98 ERA in three games, while Joe Kelly was perfect in the series. The hitting was just as good for the Red Sox, who came up with big hits when they needed them.

Congratulations to the Red Sox, their ninth title in team history!