Chris Sale fired strike three past a sprawling Manny Machado to clinch the Boston Red Sox’ ninth World Series Championship at around 11:15 last night. Christian Vazquez immediately shot up and leapt into Sale’s arms in front of the mound at Dodger stadium. The score read 5-1 and the series ended 4-1.
The Red Sox played statistically one of the greatest seasons in the history of baseball. Not only did they earn the greatest record in team history at 108 games, but they also beat two other 100-game winners on their way to the World Series and then beat the strongest team coming out of the National League. Game 5 was not an unexciting game, but Red Sox fans are glad that the Dodgers didn’t take them to an excruciating Game 7 like the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians in 2016 or the Houston Astros and Los Angeles Dodgers (again) last year in 2017. It started on a high note for Beantown. Andrew Benintendi singled up the middle off of LA starter Clayton Kershaw (who has lost his last four elimination games). This minor hit was followed by the game winner, a two-run home run from the World Series MVP, Steve Pearce. David Freese struck some fear into Boston hearts as he hit David Price’s first pitch over the center field wall, but the Dodgers would not score again for the rest of the game, the series, and the 2018 season. Mookie Betts (whose initials spell “M.L.B.”) homered in the sixth inning off of Kershaw to increase the Boston lead from 2-1 to 3-1. That was Betts’ first home run this postseason and his first run batted in this World Series. J.D. Martinez knocked one out the left field stands the next inning to put Boston up 4-1 and Pearce homered again in the eighth to make it 5-1. That would be the final score. Both Price and Kershaw pitched seven innings, both struck out five, but Price allowed four fewer hits at three and three fewer runs at one. Joe Kelly pitched the eighth for the Sox and allowed zero runs while Pedro Baez took the hill for LA and allowed the second Pearce homer. Kenley Jansen dealt to Boston for the top of the ninth and allowed zero runs, but Boston was excited to focus on their defense for the bottom of the inning. Sale took the hill to face the middle of the LA batting order, Justin Turner, Max Muncy, and Machado. Kelly had struck out the side in the eighth, and Sale followed in suit. He finally caught Machado to end it on a nasty curveball low and inside. Machado had no idea where it was. What gave Boston the edge over Los Angeles? For one, Alex Cora’s management style was very different from that of Dave Roberts. Cora based his coaching on excitement and encouragement, while Roberts told his players that he didn’t think they had it in them for a specific night. Cora put his struggling players on the field with rightfully placed confidence in them. Players simply felt better under the rookie manager, Cora. Boston’s offense was also simply better. They needed their top four hitters to step up and they finally did. Home runs from three of the first four batters in the order is exactly what they needed and that won it. Also, Brock Holt started a few rallies, Eduardo Nunez hustled his heart out, Vazquez and Sandy Leon started to finally hit well, Xander Bogaerts started getting on base again, and Mitch Moreland and Jackie Bradley Jr. remembered how to drive the ball over the fence. Rafael Devers deserves his own paragraph. He made an incredible play in the field, diving down the third base line, in Game 4 to take a line drive hit away from the jogging Machado and he had important hits to keep runs alive throughout the entire postseason. This shouldn’t however detract from Price’s masterful performance, dominating with his deceptive breaking pitches. Not to mention that Nathan Eovaldi pitched his heart out in Game 3 and allowed zero runs in his appearances in Games 1 and 2. Craig Kimbrel also stopped tipping his pitches and Sale recovered from whatever stomach condition ailed him during the ALCS versus the Astros. Price had an incredible rebound from his rocky start in Game 2 of the ALDS at home at Fenway Park against the New York Yankees. The Fenway crowd opening this Series had some good omens, as well: New England Patriots’ legendary head coach, Bill Belichick, read the thrilling opening monologue and Boston music great James Taylor sung one of the best renditions of the United States’ national anthem sung at a sporting event. Before Game 5, Boston Celtics’ Hall of Famer Larry Bird and Los Angeles Lakers’ Hall of Famer and Dodgers’ co-owner Magic Johnson had an opening debate that resulted in the Boston man, Bird, getting the last word. Despite the 18 inning Game 3 debacle, the stars aligned for Boston. After 162 regular season games, 14 postseason games, five games in the World Series, nine innings of Game 5, three outs in the bottom of the ninth, and three strikes on the last batter, Boston was more than ready to take home another trophy. Congratulations to the 2018 World Series Champions, the Boston Red Sox! Jesse A. Cook “Damage Done: Red Sox Win Again!” October 29, 2018
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Eduardo Rodriguez and Rich Hill pitched a great pitchers’ duel last, but the Rodriguez’s Boston Red Sox pulled off an exciting late inning comeback winning 9-6. E-Rod left with after an unfortunate four-run sixth and the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Hill left with a comfortable 4-1 lead.
First of all, that sixth inning was terrifying for Red Sox fans: Max Muncy, who has been killer in this series, came up with a man on, but luckily for Boston struck out. The Justin Turner doubled down the left field line making it second and third for Manny Machado. Boston head coach Alex Cora signaled for the intentional walk, loading the bases for Cody Bellinger. Then, the craziness began. Bellinger grounded the ball to Steve Pearce at first base who fired a high throw home to Christian Vazquez for one out. Vazquez immediately gunned it back to Pearce covering first, but Bellinger got in the way of the throw and it passed into right field, so Turner scored having started the play on second. Cora considered challenging the play and arguing that Bellinger should be out because he obstructed an out at first, but, after a conversation with right field umpire and crew chief Ted Barrett (who was the home plate umpire during the 18 inning Game 3), Cora decided to let it be. He decided to leave E-Rod in to face Yasiel Puig, but El Caballo made him pay with a three-run bomb to left to put LA up 4-0. The Sox got their cuts in the seventh when Mitch Moreland stepped up to the plate as a pinch hitter for pitcher Matt Barnes. With Xander Bogaerts on second and Brock Holt on first, Moreland took a Ryan Madson changeup into the right field stands to make it 4-3 Dodgers. In the top of the eighth, Kenley Jansen peered in at Steve Pearce with no one on base and one out. Seconds later, the game was tied. Pearce drove an absolute blast into the left-center fields stands making him the second Boston legend named Pearce (or Pierce) to make it rain in LA in the championship. 4-4. Remember how the sixth gave BoSox fans heart attacks? The ninth killed Dodgers’ fans. With one out Holt doubled on a chopper down the third base line, beating the shift. Rafael Devers pinch hit for Sandy Leon and singled to center, scoring Holt. Blake Swihart then came in to pinch hit for Joe Kelly and he grounded Devers to second. Dylan Floro was then ordered by head coach Dave Roberts to intentionally walk Mookie Betts. Andrew Benintendi tapped a chopper down the third base line and Justin Turner’s throw to first came late, loading the bases with two out for the Red Sox. Pearce came up again with a huge hit and doubled to right center to drive in all three men on base. Kenta Maeda walked J.D. Martinez to bring up Xander Bogaerts who singled Pearce home. 9-4 heading to the bottom of the ninth. Despite a two-run home run by Kiké Hernández, Craig Kimbrel pitched a sound ninth to win Game 4 and advance to a 3-1 lead over LA. Tonight, David Price will toss for Boston against Clayton Kershaw. Price has thrown some nasty stuff, pitching impeccable baseball since his debacle in Game 2 of the ALDS against the New York Yankees. Kershaw has been strong throughout the playoffs, with the exception of his five earned runs allowed in Game 1 of this series at Fenway Park. Maybe the Dodger Stadium air will be different and the Dodger Dogs will prevail forcing fans to go back to Boston for some Fenway Franks, but the pitching stats look promising for Beantown to earn their fourth banner of the 21st Century tonight. Their offensive stats look different for Boston, though. Their beginning of the lineup has to be better. They have been atrocious this series with the top four going 14 for 74 in the first four games. If you want to take Nathan Eovaldi’s two Game 3 “at-bats,” then 14 for 72 still is not much better. Counting Eovaldi, they’re batting a combined .189 (.194 without Eovaldi’s two at-bats). If they want to win tonight (or at all) Betts, Benintendi, Bogaerts, Pearce, Moreland, and Martinez need to hit better (mainly the first three and the last one mentioned). Jesse A. Cook “Sox Comeback Late, Up 3-1” October 28, 2018 With one out to go in a brutal Game 3, Yasiel Puig hit a sharp ground ball to Boston Red Sox second baseman, Ian Kinsler, who misfired to first base, allowing the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Max Muncy to score the tying run in the bottom of the 13th inning. Five innings later, Muncy hit a walkoff solo shot to left field to win Game 3 for LA 3-2 in 18 innings.
Unlike the game, this’ll be brief. Joc Pederson hit a homer to go up 1-0. Jackie Bradley Jr. tied it with one of his own. Brock Holt got on base in the 13th, stole second, and took home on an Eduardo Nunez dribbler resulting in an error. Muncy walked, took second on pop up, then scored on the Kinsler error. Nathan Eovaldi pitched a gem for over six innings, but he lost it on just one earned run. Muncy walked it off leading off the 18th. Rich Hill vs. Eduardo Rodriguez tonight for Game 4. Jesse A. Cook “Kinsler Muffs Ground Ball, Maybe Series” October 27, 2018 J.D. Martinez singled to right field to put the Boston Red Sox up two games on the Los Angeles Dodgers, both in the game and in the Series. The Sox took Game 2 with a 4-2 win at home, and now fans are hoping that no more baseball will have to be played at Fenway Park this year.
Starting Friday night, MLB will see at most three games at Dodger Stadium before potentially heading back to Boston for possible Games 6 and 7. Of course, if the Red Sox keep playing like they did in the last two, they will not need a Game 5. What has been working for Boston? Well, last night, it wasn’t necessarily their offense. It wasn’t really their defense either (although Andrew Benintendi made an incredible grab), it was that the Dodgers’ offense was working poorly. David Price only allowed three hits and he struck out five in six innings. Doesn’t that mean that he was pitching well? Yes, of course, but he was also dead tired by the end and he had walked three batters by that point. By the time he left after six innings, Price had thrown 88 pitches, so the Dodgers were swinging and missing on a tired arm. In Game 3, Boston will throw Rick Porcello at the lame Dodger offense. This is where LA might have an advantage because Porcello allowed four runs in four innings on 68 pitches in his ALCS start in Game 4 against the Houston Astros. Porcello did not perform as well as Sox fans hoped he would (although another Benintendi fielding gem won the game), so the Dodgers might be able to scratch out a win. With this in mind, we must remember that the Boston bullpen has been absolutely dynamite this postseason: Since Game 2 of the ALCS (six games ago), the bullpen has only allowed a total five runs and the team is undefeated. The bullpen has a 1.95 Earned Run Average since the start of the win streak and that’s really something to be admired. If the Sox want to sweep, their pitching has to keep up, but more importantly, their top four hitters in the lineup have to hit better. Through Games 1 and 2, the top four hitters (including both Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce because they substituted for one another) acquired 11 hits and five RBIs. That has to be up if Boston wants to sweep. Jesse A. Cook “Boston 2 Away From 4th WS Win This Century” October 26, 2018 After an 8-4 win in Game 1 of the World Series, the Boston Red Sox look to knock out the Los Angeles Dodgers in four games. Clutch performances from Eduardo Nunez, who had a pinch hit home run, Andrew Benintendi, who went four for five, and Nathan Eovaldi and Craig Kimbrel, who pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings.
Why should the Red Sox sweep? LA is playing against what the Houston Astros’ head coach A.J. Hinch called a, “Juggernaut offense.” Last night, the Sox matched the Dodgers for almost every run they scored. The box score shows that there was only one inning where the Dodgers scored a run and the Red Sox did not. In the second inning, Matt Kemp hit a solo home run off of Chris Sale and the Sox did not answer in the bottom of the inning. That was the only time the Dodgers outscored the Red Sox in any inning last night. The Sox also have a knack for taking pitches. Whether they are good or bad pitches, they stretch their opponent out. Granted, Sale threw 91 pitches by his departure in the fifth inning, but LA’s Clayton Kershaw had already thrown 79 by the same point in the game. When a pitcher throws upwards of 75 pitches, they usually do not have a lot of gas left. The reason Boston was successful with a tired Sale on the hill was because Boston simply has better fielding (also Sale struck out seven in just four innings of work). Good defense is also something that the Dodgers do not possess. In order to keep their best bats in the lineup, Dave Roberts, Dodgers’ head coach, has to put Chris Taylor and Cody Bellinger (two infielders) in the outfield or Max Muncy (a first baseman) at second base or Yasmani Grandal at first (he’s even a risk at his main position at catcher). The Sox have depth at every position. The only possible catch is that, to keep J.D. Martinez in the lineup in the National League ballparks, Boston head coach Alex Cora is considering placing Mookie Betts at his old position at second base. The Sox were lucky to have such depth in their lineup against the Astros, and while they still need Mookie Betts, Benintendi, Steve Pearce, and Martinez to hit well, they still have the same depth. Rafael Devers and Sandy Leon each had important singles and Eduardo Nunez hit a pinch hit three-run home run over the Green Monster on the second pitch of his at-bat against the tough Alex Wood. The Sox might not need their best hitters to be their best players, but Martinez also drove in two runs, Benintendi scored three times, and Betts scored twice. The bullpen came through strong last night, but Cora’s philosophy has been a classic playoff bullpen philosophy. To him, the bullpen is every pitcher who has not pitched already in that game. Eovaldi is the probable starter for Game Three and Cora decided to bring him in for an inning last night. In the ALDS, Rick Porcello and Sale came in in relief in Game’s 1 and 4, respectively, and David Price was warming up when Benintendi made a diving catch on Alex Bregman’s bases loaded line drive in Game 4 of the ALCS. Sure, Ryan Brasier has only allowed one run this postseason (he allowed a sacrifice fly to Manny Machado last night) and Kimbrel has finally stopped tipping his pitches, but Cora has been relying on his top four starters, Sale, Price, Eovaldi, and Porcello. Jesse A. Cook “Sox Win Game 1, Should Sweep” October 24, 2018 |
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