It was a magical year for the Boston Red Sox. Wait, that sounds lame, let me rephrase. It was an awesome freaking year for the Boston Red Sox. And an awsome night for Boston fans who witnessed their team win the World Series at home for the first time in 95 years, I think it's safe to say no one at Fenway Park last night had ever seen the Red Sox win a World Series at home. They'd have to be at least 100 to remember something like that. Not a lot of 100-year-olds are attending baseball games anymore.
The Red Sox have won two World Series' in the past ten years prior to this one, both on the road. In 2002 they swept the St. Louis Cardinals in four games and ended the series in St. Louis. In 2007 they swept the Colorado Rockies, and ended the series away from Boston that year as well. And although those World Series victories are special, this one might be extra special.
Why was this year so special? Why does this Red Sox team get so much credit? After all, they are a big budget team with big wallets aren't they? Perhaps. But this team was different.
After winning just 69 games in 2012, and having what was their worst year in recent memory, the Red Sox needed to make a change.
They ditched some payroll by shipping the likes of Carl Crawford, Adrian Gonzalez, and Josh Beckett to the Los Angeles Dodgers. They fired their awful manager Bobby Valentine, hired former Blue Jays manager John Farrell, and they brought in some free agents who did their jobs, and the did them well.
They brought in Mike Napoli, a long time vet who contributed 23 homers and 92 RBI to the team this regular season. He finished with a .259 batting average and a solid .360 on-base percentage. He also brought a fierce passion and desire to win. He hit some big home-runs down the stretch to help the Red Sox clinch the division title. He also chipped in with timely hits during their playoff run.
They brought in Johnny Gomes, who also had a good year with the Sox. Though he didn't put up the numbers the Napoli did, Gomes came up huge for the Sox smacking 13 homers and 62 RBI in what was limited playing time due to the emergence of Daniel Nava. The Sox also went 10-1 in the playoffs when Gomes was in the lineup.
They brought in Shane Victorino, the former Philadelphia Philly, who'd been described to me by a co-worker as a "has been". What Victorino brought to the team was speed, willingness to do whatever he needed to do to win, a veteran presence, and he wasas clutch as almost anyone in the playoffs. (Excluding his teammate nicknamed "Big Papi".) Victorino has 20 RBI's in the playoffs with the bases are loaded. Two grand-slams, one with Boston this year, and one with the Phillie's in 2007, and a three run double tonight sure helped him get there.
There was so much about this team that led them to where they are after last nights win. They worked hard, they wore pitchers down, and they had a different hero every night. Whether it was Big Papi's grand-slam against the Tigers, Victorinio's grand-slam in the same series, Napoli's home runs, Stephen Drew's fielding, the all around play of Dustin Pedroia, there was a different hero every night for this team. They knew what it would take to win, and they did it. They worked hard, they played for each other, and became more than a team.
I know this all sounds cliche, and that is a fair point, but if you watched this team progress as the year went on, a cliche is all you can use to describe this team, there's no other way to put it. They went from worst, to first, and they earned every inch of it.
The city of Boston needed a win, not just a win for their baseball team, but a win for the whole city. We all remember the bombings that happened at the Boston Marathon earlier in the year. What the Sox did was give the people of Boston something to cheer for, they gave them something to believe in. And with the Red Sox logo mowed into center-field with the worlds "Boston Strong" beneath it, the team went out and did just that.
Again, I know this all sounds very cliche, but great teams deserve high praise. And sports types love cliches, so why not use them?
In a series clinching game six, it all started with a single by lead-off man Jacoby Ellsbury in the 4th. After Dustin Pedroia advanced him to second, Johnny Gomes got hit by a pitch, and St. Louis rookie Michael Wacha gave the intentional walk to David Ortiz. Up steps Victorino who doubles off the green monster, driving in all three runs to give the Sox a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the third.
Stephen Drew then put the game away for good, homering in the bottom of the fourth. Drew, who was 1 for 11 in the series up until that point took a Wacha pitch over the wall and into the bullpen for just his second hit of the series.
After that it was all Red Sox. Napoli and Victorino would drive in another RBI each, and the Sox cruised to a 6-1 World Series clinching victory.
Veteran John Lackey picked up the win for the Red Sox pitching 6.2 innings while striking out five and walking only one batter.
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| My God that's a big ass champagne bottle... |
Honorable mention goes to Red Sox ace John Lester, who went 2-0 in the World Series, pitching 15.2 innings, walking only one batter and striking out 15. Lester also boasted an insanely low ERA of .059. In total Lester was 4-1 in the playoffs with a 1.56 ERA.
Closer Koji Uehara had seven saves in the postseason, two of which came in the World Series. He struck out 16 batters, and didn't walk anyone in any of his appearences. He also posted an extremely low 0.66 ERA. After he entered Game 6, it was all but over.
There's no news on what they're going to do with the beards yet, but I'd say keep them. They look badass.
That's a wrap on another season of Major Leage Baseball. I'm going to try and post as often as possible from here on out, but I will post at least once a week. Give me a follow in Twitter @burnsy004
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