Causing Hub-bub
Price, Pearce lead Red Sox to their 4th title in 15 years
LOS ANGELES — The Red Sox won their fourth World Series championship in 15 years, beating the Dodgers 5-1 in Game 5 Sunday night behind David Price’s pitching and Steve Pearce’s power.
Alex Cora became the first manager from Puerto Rico to guide a team to the title. He’s just the fifth rookie skipper to do it overall.
After posting a teamrecord 108 wins during the regular season and romping through the AL playoffs, the Red Sox finished off a one-sided Series.
Price threw three-hit ball into the eighth inning. Pearce hit two home runs a night after his homer and three-run double spurred a late rally.
Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez also connected as the Red Sox hit three homers off Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw.
The Dodgers lost Game 7 of the World Series last year to the Astros, also at Dodger Stadium by the same 5-1 score.
Chris Sale, who was scheduled to start a potential Game 6 for the Red Sox, came on in the ninth to strike out the side and clinch the title.
He might have played almost as important a role the night before.
Sale stood in the back of the dugout Saturday night as the Series was slipping away and started screaming.
“He’s got two pitches!” the Red Sox ace hollered to his left among a stream Steve Pearce, right, celebrates his second home run of the game and third of the World Series with J.D. Martinez. RESULTS Red Sox win 4-1 Game 1: Red Sox 8-4 Game 2: Red Sox 4-2 Game 3: Dodgers 3-2 (18) Game 4: Red Sox 9-6 Game 5: Red Sox 5-1 of profanities, referring to Dodgers starter Rich Hill.
Then he shouted to his right.
And t hen straight ahead, pointing with his pitching hand and extending his ring and middle fingers for emphasis.
Sale stepped down, kept on shrieking and raised his right hand, his head bobbing up and down and a fire in his eyes.
“It scared me a little bit,” Rafael Devers said through a translator, “because I had never seen him yell like that, and the words that he was saying, I had never heard that come from him before. But, you know, we came out sluggish and that moment helped us get motivated for the rest of the game.”
The Red Sox had just fallen behind by four runs in the sixth inning, nine outs from finding themselves tied 2-2 in a World Series that seemed to be a runaway just 27 hours earlier. The Red Sox had managed just one hit in six innings.
“We felt that we had no energy, actually none whatsoever,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “It had to do with Rich Hill, the way he was throwing the ball.”
Sale did not respond with reassuring words like the ones delivered by David Ortiz in his dugout huddle in St. Louis after the fifth inning of Game 4 five years ago.
This was more like Justin Verlander’s motivational message to the Astros when he popped up the stairs in the very same dugout during Game 2 last October.
“Chris Sale in his leadership kind of in the middle of the game said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to get it going,’ and the guys responded,” hitting coach Tim Hyers said. “We capitalized and struck quick and struck often at the end.”
Sale had been announced as the Red Sox starter against Clayton Kershaw on Sunday, but Cora switched to Price.