Nobody's perfect
Sox rolled to 108 wins, but shortcomings could be exposed in the ALDS
The Red Sox racked up a franchise-record 108 wins in the regular season, but that doesn’t mean they’re an unstoppable force destined for the World Series.
ABASEBALL is held together by 108 stitches. Organs in the human body begin to shut down at 108 degrees Fahrenheit.
Will 108 wins bind the Red Sox to greatness or lead to October malfunction? Will 108 be remembered in Boston as milestone or millstone?
The 1998 Yankees are the best team I have seen, a tough, championship club. And that group felt the onus of validating 114 regular-season wins, carrying around the burden like an extra opponent that October. I always felt the 1999 Yankees won “only” 98 games because they did not want to endure the unseen opponent again.
I al s o saw t he 1 1 6- win Mariners melt in five games against the Yankees in the 2001 ALCS; Seattle unable to cope with either those tough Yankees or history. We have seen t his with t he 72-win Warriors and the 18-1 Patriots — regular- season history a foe as much as a feat.
So on the brink of this postseason, I wonder: Are the Red Sox magic or the Mariners?
“We’re about to f ind out,” Boston manager Alex Cora told The Post as he watched Thursday’s pre-division series workout. “We have been tested this year, people forget that after we got out 17-2 the Yankees caught us and went ahead.”
They won a team-record 108 times, the ninth most in major league history and the most since those 2001 Mariners.
“We had to win that much,” Cora said. “The second-place team won 100. Our goal was to win the division. We had to win a lot to do that.”
But beginning Friday, it is 0-0 again and the Red Sox will be in a very Yankees position when it comes to The Rivalry — the favorites having to honor successful history.
It is a weight and we will see what kind of weight lifters these Red Sox are when, how do I put this, maybe they are the accidental 108-win team. Don’t get me wrong, they are really good. On offense, defense, the bases, pitching. But like, say, the Astros and Yankees, they read 95-100-win good. They don’t read like one of the 10 best teams ever.
The 2001 Mariners, who were pushed by a second-place 102win team (A’s), covered blemishes by relying on an MVP right fielder (Ichiro Suzuki) and veteran genius DH (Edgar Martinez) as surely as these Red Sox do with presumptive MVP right fielder Mookie Betts and veteran genius DH J. D. Martinez. But an ALCS show- down against the 2001 Yankees exposed what gnawed at you all year about those Mariners: Were they really 116-win good? Was that really a 116-win pitching staff ?
It gnaws at me with these Red Sox. They won 108 times, but the equation to get there doesn’t neatly add up to 108.
They received putrid offensive production from their catchers (. 547 OPS). Their projected right side of the infield of Hanley Ramirez and Dustin Pedroia hardly played — which perhaps worked to the Red Sox benefit. Third baseman Rafael Devers took a Gary Sanchez-like step backward on both sides of the ball. Chris Sale was a f irsthalf genius who made just f ive starts in the f inal two months and four were token pitch- building appearances in September. Most troubling — especially when projecting toward this time of year — the Red Sox never did find a stable baton pass from their rotation to closer Craig Kimbrel (no AL team had more blown secondhalf saves).
So how did they get to 108 wins?
“I believe in it [the 108 wins] because of the way we went about it,” Cora said. “We were so consistent. We never felt we didn’t have a chance to win a game. We always felt we could score on anyone, especially late, and that our pitching would give us a chance to win.”
The Red Sox indeed were blue collar, never taking time off. They crushed the AL East underbelly, going 31-7 against the Orioles and Blue Jays compared to the Yankees’ superb, but still comparatively short 25-13. They had a relentless quality that lasted all season — their .872 OPS with runners in scoring position the best by a team in 12 years.
They also got, what one AL executive called, “the placebo effect” of playing their first nine games against the torndown Florida teams, including six against the Rays before Tampa Bay f igured out the “opener” style that would buoy it to surprise contention. Boston opened 8-1 in those games en route to a 17-2 start that solidified the internal belief system.
Boston stayed relatively healthy. The teams that used the fewest players this year — the Astros (41), Rockies (41) and Red Sox (44) — are among the final eight.
And i mproved harmony came with a turnover from the unpopular John Farrell to Cora. In Farrell’s last two seasons, the Red Sox won the AL East, but lost in the division series, so Boston carries that into the matchup with the Yankees too.
“I don’t feel [the extra burden],” Cora said. “We knew we were going to be judged by October if we won 95, 98 or 108.”