Red Sox champs again
LOS ANGELES — On the final pitch, Chris Sale went back to old reliable. The lefty turned back and delivered a nasty slider that Manny Machado had no chance at. Christian Vazquez got up, sprinted to Sale and jumped into his arms. The rest of their teammates followed suit.
The Red Sox once again are world champions.
Following a record-breaking regular season, in which they won a franchise-best 108 games, the Red Sox staked their claim as one of the greatest teams of all time Sunday night in Los Angeles.
David Price dazzled again, the stars finally arrived and Steve Pearce provided the dagger as these Red Sox made even more history, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers, 5-1, in Game 5 to clinch another championship, their fourth since 2004 and ninth in franchise history.
In the pantheon of the greatest Red Sox teams, this one is surely at the top of the list.
Alex Cora pulled the right strings all season, and became the fifth manager to win a World Series in their first year as manager. They did it with pitching. They did it with an elite offense. They did it with a bullpen that loudly silenced the doubters this postseason. And they did it with Price, their $217 million pitcher who signed with Boston three years ago for this very moment, a moment many never thought would come.
For a third consecutive start this October, the lefthander was brilliant, and he reached the pinnacle of not only his time with the Red Sox, but his career. He pitched seven innings, allowed just three hits and one run and struck out five. As he exited in the eighth inning, he received a standing ovation from the Red Sox fans at Dodger Stadium.
Unthinkable three weeks ago, Price pitched the Red Sox to a title.
Joe Kelly shut it down -again -- in the eighth, before Sale closed it in the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning, ending it when he struck out Machado.
They got plenty of help from their offensive friends. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez, who both had struggled in this Fall Classic, homered. But Pearce stole the show, jacking two home runs as he put a stamp on a legendary World Series performance.
A night after he provided the heroics for the Red Sox in their Game 4 win -- in which he blasted the gametying home run before sealing it with a three-run double, Pearce was back for more.
And he didn’t waste any time.
After Andrew Benintendi singled in the top of the first, Pearce jumped on a first-pitch fastball from Clayton Ker- shaw and deposited it into the seats in left to give the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. A large contingent of Red Sox fans in the stands at Dodger Stadium were very loud as the Sox struck, the 10th time in 14 games that they scored first.
But the Dodgers won back some momentum immediately in the bottom half of the inning off of Price, who was starting in place of scheduled starter Chris Sale. The lefty’s first pitch was a 91 mph four-seamer right down the middle that David Freese sent the other way for a solo homer.
It was something of a stalemate after that, with both Kershaw and Price pitching well.
Price was forced to pick up the slack to no fault of his own in the third when J.D. Martinez, starting in right field, lost a routine fly ball off the bat of Freese to deep right, where he watched it sail over his head and roll to the wall. Freese advanced to third for a one-out triple.
But Price picked up his teammate before Martinez helped his own cause. The lefty got Justin Turner to ground out before Martinez tracked down a fly ball from Kike Hernandez down the right-field line to end the inning. Disaster averted.
Kershaw retired nine Red Sox in a row before Martinez singled in the fourth, but Xander Bogaerts grounded into an inning-ending double play.
After a scoreless fifth, the Red Sox’ stars finally woke up.
After he went hitless in his previous 15 at-bats as the series shifted to Los Angeles, Mookie Betts finally broke through, and he couldn’t have picked a better time to do it.
Kershaw pitched a 2-2 slider that went low to the MVP frontrunner, but he didn’t miss. Betts golfed it 385 feet to the left-field seats, his first career postseason home run and first homer since Sept. 24, to give the Red Sox a 3-1 lead.
The next inning, it was the other MVP candidate’s turn.
The leadoff hitter of the seventh inning, Martinez crushed a 1-1 fastball off Kershaw to dead center. It was his first homer since the ALCS clincher, and gave the Sox a 4-1 lead.
The Red Sox were well on their way.
Meanwhile, Price was dominant.
The left-hander was brilliant. He more than settled down after that first-pitch homer, and gave up just two hits the rest of the way. He retired 14 in a row at one point, and the Dodgers barely stood a chance against him.
Pearce closed the deal in the eighth with a line-drive solo homer to left-center, his third of the series. He received “MVP” chants as he rounded the bases, the Red Sox on their way back to Boston for another parade.