World Series: Battle of the heavyweights
Red Sox vs. Dodgers is one fabled team against another
The 2018 Major League Baseball season contained a few surprises but, truthfully, not many.
Sure, the Oakland A’s and Atlanta Braves made unexpected runs to the postseason, and, to some, the Milwaukee Brewers and Colorado Rockies were better than expected.
Still, the season was supposed to be about a handful of powerhouse teams chasing the title, and when everything shook out, the 114th World Series is a matchup of two of the heaviest of the heavyweights.
The Red Sox against the Dodgers — fabled franchise against fabled franchise, monstrous payroll against monstrous payroll, star-studded roster against starstudded roster, even iconic ballpark against iconic ballpark.
In other words, a matchup not one person with Fox Sports or Major League Baseball is the least bit upset about.
Game 1 is Tuesday at Fenway Park.
The current iteration of these teams have never met in the World Series, though the franchises once did. It was in 1916 when the Red Sox met the Brooklyn Robins.
That series, like this one, didn’t lack for star power.
Future Hall-of-Famer Rube Marquard led the Brooklyn pitching staff and the Robins also featured a 25-year-old outfielder who would make a much bigger name for himself years down the road as a manager for two New York franchises — Casey Stengel.
Boston won Game 2 of the series, 4-1, when the Red Sox threw their ace lefthander, who was still a few years from deciding he’d rather hit than pitch, a 21year-old named Babe Ruth.
Stars galore dot both current rosters, led by Clayton Kershaw, Kenley Jansen and Manny Machado for the Dodgers. The Red Sox counter with sMookie Betts, J.D. Martinez and Chris Sale.
Though there is little surprise to these teams being in the Series, the clubs took vastly different journeys. The Dodgers, who lost to the Houston Astros in the seventh game of last year’s World Series, were strong favourites to win the National League West but wobbled through much of the regular season and had to survive a one-game playoff against the Rockies to claim the division crown, finishing 92-71. They took out the Braves in four games in the Division Series, then prevailed in a seven-game series against the Brewers in the NLCS.
“We haven’t had ‘easy’ in the playbook all year,” Andrew Friedman, the Dodgers president of baseball operations, told the Los Angeles Times late Saturday after a 5-1 victory over the Brewers in Game 7 in Milwaukee. “So for it to come down this way shouldn’t be surprising. Ultimately, at the end of the day, the talent in this room won out.”
The Red Sox, meanwhile, experienced little resistance. They ran away from the Yankees to win the American League East, going a franchise-best 108-54, then took out their longtime rival in four games in the Division Series. Considered underdogs by many against the defending champion Astros, the Red Sox won the series, 4-1, taking four straight after losing Game 1 at Fenway.
“We know who we have in this clubhouse, we know we’re going to have an opportunity for someone different to step up every night,” closer Craig Kimbrel said after the Red Sox clinched the ALCS in Game 5 in Houston, their fifth straight road victory this post-season. “You saw that in this series.”
David Price, who threw six scoreless innings in Game 5 to finally earn his first career post-season win as a starter, was asked what the Astros series taught the Red Sox about themselves.
“We have a very good team,” Price said after a brief pause. “I don’t think we learned that, we already knew that. But I think we proved that against another very good team.”
Another one, as expected, awaits.