PLAYOFF EXPERIENCE A HELP BUT NOT CRITICAL

Almost exactly one year ago, the American League Division Series started with the Red Sox’ first playoff game in three years.

Hitting cleanup was one of the great postseason performers of all time. At second base, a twotime World Series champion with more than 170 playoff atbats. At first base, a .467 hitter in two previous division series.

The rest of the Red Sox starting lineup? It had a total of 34 postseason plate appearances, and all of those belonged to a still-young shortstop who’d been a third baseman during his only other postseason exposure. Five Red Sox starters were making their postseason debuts.

Young and inexperienced, the Red Sox were swept in three games. But, surely the experience alone leaves them better equipped for playoff run this season. Right? Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski can only shrug.

“By no means does it hurt,” he said of playoff experience. “I guess everybody is different in how they respond to that. I’ve had guys that have been in the postseason that, they still don’t have a good postseason the next year . . . . I’ve seen young guys come into the postseason their first time and just do great.”

The nature of the playoffs, with its short series and often infrequent appearances, makes it difficult to predict from one year to the next, and the impact of playoff experience is similarly difficult to gauge.

Among the postseason veterans in the Red Sox clubhouse, there are different theories about what best equips a team for a playoff run. One said health is the biggest factor. Another suggested getting hot down the stretch. Another said it’s all about staying calm in the moment.

“I think that’s the big thing for players,” Eduardo Nunez said. “They’re too excited. Sometimes they don’t think clear what I have to do. Everybody tries to hit a homer, be the hero. I think that’s the biggest part.”

Nunez has been a part of four playoff series, but has only 14 postseason at-bats because he was a backup for most of those series.

That still makes Nunez one of the October veterans on this roster. Only six Red Sox position players have more postseason experience, and three are platoon or bench players.

Three of the Red Sox five starting pitchers have never started a postseason game, including ace Chris Sale, who missed the playoffs each of his seven seasons in Chicago.

Their bullpen is relatively experienced — headlined by Craig Kimbrel, who’s allowed one hit in eight playoff appearances — but it’s entirely possible, if not likely, more than half of the Red Sox playoff roster will have no postseason experience or will have gotten its only postseason experience in those three division series games a year ago.

“Just getting experience, you know how to prepare your body,” reliever Matt Barnes said. “You know how to mentally prepare for it, physically prepare for it, be ready to experience that. Having been there, it allows you to kind of maybe be a little calmer when it comes, knowing that you’ve been there and what to expect.”

Fister relishes spotlight

Six years ago, Doug Fister made his playoff debut carrying with him the usual words of wisdom.

It’s still the same game he played in Little League: Block out the pomp and circumstance. Keep a narrow focus on the task at hand.

Through nine playoff appearances with a 2.60 ERA, Fister’s done the exact opposite.

“In my history, guys will say, ‘You’ve got to block out all the extras,’” Fister said. “Well, for me, I’ve found that, instead of blocking it out, I try and soak it all in. If I’m starting that day, I take a minute. Get up on the mound, throw my warmup pitches, take a step off before I go to pitch, and I’m actually looking around to soak it all in. And (then), ‘All right, it’s time to go back to work.’ That’s kind of the thought process that goes into it.”

Players who have been on the field in October say there’s no denying it’s a different environment, and for all the reasons outside observes might assume. More pressure. Bigger crowds. Extra noise.

Whether that’s any sort of problem seems to vary.

Really, the playoffs are a kind of one-month microcosm of what makes a baseball player a successful professional in the first place. High school brings more attention than Little League. College brings higher expectations than high school. The minor leagues carry more pressure than college. And the big leagues are a grander stage than the minors.

The postseason is just another link in the chain.

“When you get up here (to the majors), the games mean more, you’re on a bigger stage, against better players, with more people in the stands watching and screaming,” Barnes said. “Obviously as you do it more, you have a bigger level of comfort with it.

“Similar thing with the postseason. I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. Guys can tell you it’s going to be loud. It’s going to be like this. It’s going to be like that. But until you really experience and know it, it’s

something you can only sort of prepare for. Once you actually experience it and do it, you become more kind of accustomed to it and more comfortable with it and know what to expect.”

Some will need to block out the noise. Some will have to embrace it.

“My advice would be to focus on what you can do to help the team win today,” said Rajai Davis, whose 18 career playoff games are the third-most on the team. “Don’t worry about anyone else. Focus on how you’re going to (react) if it’s your turn to hit with a man at second base. How are you going to get that guy over? It’s focusing on, how are you going to help us win today?”

Been there, done that

Astros outfielder Carlos Beltran has been an elite postseason performer in his career, yet his most infamous playoff moment just might be his series-ending strikeout in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series.

On the other end of the spectrum, Davis was a career .132 postseason hitter when he stepped to the plate to face Aroldis Chapman in the eighth inning of last year’s World Series Game 7. Yet Davis hit a game-tying, two-run home run that will be forever one of the most electric moments in Indians franchise history.

Surely, if there’s a player who would dismiss the small-samplesize statistics of past playoff performance, it would be Davis, who proved them to be completely meaningless by going deep in the biggest at-bat of his career.

But that’s not the way Davis feels at all. Even if it’s only a handful of at-bats or innings, the veteran outfielder said playoff experience and success are meaningful.

“I think it does carry a lot of weight,” he said. “You have more people watching, for one. And more of the guys you were playing against all year (are) watching. And there’s more pressure just to win, to keep winning, and for that situation to get the job done.

“So, if you can thrive in that situation, personally, I think that says a lot about your character. That’s a tough situation to be able to thrive. It’s hard because you get that one moment. You have to be ready for that moment.”

David Price notoriously has pitched to a 5.54 ERA in the postseason, but as a playoff reliever with the Rays in 2008, he was terrific. Addison Reed had a brutal 12th inning and took a loss in the decisive Game 5 of the 2015 World Series, but that’s the one blip in an otherwise brilliant run of eight straight scoreless postseason appearances. Dustin Pedroia is only a .242 career hitter in the postseason, but he’s had an OPS of .850 or better in three playoff series with three hits and five RBI in Game 7 of the 2007 ALCS.

“If you have your first game, and you face (Corey) Kluber, you want to hit four homers,” Nunez said. “You go 0-for-4 because it’s Kluber, and he’s not going to allow you to hit four homers. So that’s the key. Now, you have an 0-for-4 the first year, and if you face him this year, you know you can be the same mentally (as if it’s the regular season).”

How did the Red Sox’ firsttime playoff performers fare last postseason?

Andrew Benintendi, with 34 games of big league experience, hit .333 with a .778 slugging percentage. Jackie Bradley Jr., coming off an All-Star season, went 1-for-10 with seven strikeouts. Mookie Betts, last year’s AL MVP runner-up, hit .200. Brock Holt, a part-timer most of the season, hit .400.

“I think the experience can only be beneficial,” Dombrowski said.

Said Betts: “That also helps knowing that I’ve been there with this person before and we’ve kind of experienced things together. Definitely it was one of those bonding things, for sure.”

Steeled by stretch run

If there’s value in postseason experience, it surely comes from becoming comfortable in a highpressure, high-profile environment when every game is basically must-win.

Haven’t the Red Sox been playing — and playing well — under similar circumstances for the past month?

“We’ve been in a pennant race for a couple of months, really,” Dombrowski said. “So, we’ve been playing for a divisional lead. We’re trying to win a division, that’s our goal. So, we’re in a position where every game in September has been a big game for us. That’s the reality of it, So, it can only help, again, as you go forward.”

That’s the idea, anyway. Whether last year’s three games of playoff experience actually help the Red Sox this season seems to be anyone’s guess. But surely it won’t hurt to have that first exposure out of the way.

“There just may not be a tomorrow,” Betts said. “But, obviously, the game we’re playing is the same.”