RED SOX WIN WORLD SERIES
Fourth title in 15 years
So good, so good. LOS ANGELES Just as it roars through old Fenway Park when Sweet Caroline is blasted in the eighth inning, the Boston Red Sox are that and more.
The American League champions and winningest team in all of baseball finished off one of the most impressive playoff runs in history Sunday with a resounding 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Led by a pair of former Toronto Blue Jays and riding the long ball to all of their five runs, the Sox won the 114th World Series in five games, capping a clinical October post-season run with a record of 11-3.
Former Jay Steve Pearce got it started with a two-run homer in the first inning and would add another in the eighth for three in the final 10 innings of this series.
After the first of those blasts, the Sox would never trail.
Following Sunday’s victory, Pearce was named Most Valuable Player of the World Series.
And right behind Pearce in the clutch department was another former Blue Jay, David Price.
The veteran starter has rarely been better, snuffing any comeback hopes from the Dodgers by allowing just three hits in seven innings of work.
Once a playoff dud, Price will be revered back in Boston as he won each of his final three starts this October, all in massive situations.
And throughout these playoffs these Red Sox were masterfully handled by first-year manager Alex Cora, who was hired to replace John Farrell, the man who bolted the Jays for his “dream job” in Boston.
Determined to mark their territory, the Red Sox got after it early. Pearce blasted an offering from Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, bringing home Andrew Benintendi, who had singled just before him.
And what a story Pearce became for the Red Sox.
When Toronto GM Ross Atkins phoned him in June to tell him he was being dealt, Pearce, who enjoyed his Jays teammates, was shocked and taken aback.
With Pearce a free agent in the off-season and not fitting in the Jays’ plans, Atkins told him to “Go and win a World Series.” So go, he did.
Pearce fit in immediately with his Red Sox and is indicative to what the team is all about.
Getting contributions from up and down his lineup, Cora got the most of everyone in his 25-man roster.
On Sunday, after Pearce it was Mookie Betts snapping an 0-for-14 stretch with a solo homer in the sixth inning to open up a 3-1 lead and you could start to smell the bubbly.
An inning later it was J.D. Martinez, the slugging DH who signed a five-year, US$110-million deal to boost the offence. Bam. Another solo shot to the deepest part of this gem of a ballpark.
Then there was Price, who after years of playoff failure was pure money in his last three starts, including the jubilant clincher. Price pitched into the eighth inning allowing just one run, a solo homer to David Freese in the first inning, and only three hits all night.
Not leaving anything to chance, Cora brought in his ace Chris Sale to finish off the Dodgers with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.
For a guy who was winless in his first 11 career playoff starts, Price finished on an incredible three-win run — the ALCS clincher vs. Houston, Game 2 of the Fall Classic back in Boston, and now this.
For the second consecutive October, the baseball season ended at Chavez Ravine, Dodgers fans despondent as the Red Sox spilled out of their dugout to celebrate a fourth title since 2004.
They did so on the heels of a 108-win regular season in which they rode the arms of Price and fellow starters Sale and Rick Porcello and the bats of Betts, Martinez and others. But Boston team president Dave Dombrowski wasn’t content.
He added with crafty trades like the one for Pearce (which included the Jays retaining US$1.5 million of his salary) and pitcher Nathan Eovaldi from the Rays.
With the AL East wrapped up in September, Cora took care to rest some of his stars to gear up for what would become one of the most clinical playoff runs the sport has seen.
The Sox won twice at Yankee Stadium to take care of the Bronx Bombers 3-1 in the ALDS, finished off the reigning champion Astros in Houston for a 4-1 ALCS triumph. All that kept them from a World Series sweep was an epic 18-inning loss in Game 3, a contest in which the Sox twice had late leads.
In Sunday’s clincher, those two former Jays had performances for the ages.
“We’re a bunch of grinders,” said Pearce. “It’s awesome the way we play day in and day out. We expect a lot of each other and we knew exactly that this is what we were going to do.”
“We’re a bunch of grinders,” said Pearce, who was dealt in June when the Jays officially began their fire sale. “It’s awesome the way we play day in and day out. We expect a lot of each other and we knew exactly that this is what we were going to do.”
Right behind Pearce in MVP candidacy was Price, who was brilliant in his seven-plus innings of work.
“What a season,” Cora said as the celebrations started on the field.
“It starts with these guys. They are all very talented and they bought into it.”
“I just think when the crowd’s getting into it, everything starts to get loud, it’s almost you’ve got to do less,” said Pearce, who had a whopping eight RBI in the series.
“And that’s my approach, don’t try to do too much when you’re out there. Just play baseball and just kind of have the same approach and let the pitcher make the mistake.”
In less than two weeks Price earned much of that US$217 million he collected in a sevenyear deal when he left the Jays as a free agent following the 2015 season.
“There’s not going to be questions in spring training about David Price in October,” Cora said. “He’s in a good place, not only mentally but physically. We feel he can do this.”
I just think when the crowd’s getting into it, everything starts to get loud, it’s almost you’ve got to do less.