Eduardo Nunez, now a Boston legend, was the unlikeliest of World Series heroes
By Cody Rivera
If you didn’t watch Game 1 of the World Series, you’ll never guess who delivered the biggest hit of the night. Trust me, you won’t.
Who could’ve predicted this?
I was long past the point of hoping that Eduardo Nunez would eventually come up big for the Boston Red Sox. For much of this postseason, he didn’t provide much more than an unreliable bat and some mind-boggling blunders at third base. After Nunez’ defensive spoofs in Game 1 of the ALCS against Houston, I heavily lobbied for Alex Cora to go with 21-year-old Rafael Devers exclusively at the hot corner for the rest of this postseason.
I still stand by that belief, but man, Nunez picked a really great time to finally come up with an incredibly big, clutch hit for the Red Sox.
Leading the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-4 in Game 1 of the World Series at Fenway Park, Nunez stepped into the box as a pinch hitter and third base replacement for Devers. There were two runners on base, and this was after Dodgers manager Dave Roberts very questionably took the seemingly unhittable Pedro Baez out of the game and brought in lefty Alex Wood.
With Boston fans hoping for a bigger cushion as the shaky Craig Kimbrel prepared for the ninth inning, Nunez turned on a 1-0 pitch and drove it deep over the Green Monster in left field for a three-run homer. Suddenly, almost out of nowhere, it was 8-4 Red Sox.
I just want to add that I went from thinking “Oh great, Eduardo Nunez is pinch hitting” to “OH MY GOD EDUARDO NUNEZ” in a span of about 37 seconds. Obviously, somebody had to be the Game 1 hero for one of these two teams, and I was hoping it would be somebody for the Red Sox.
But if you had told me when I woke up on Tuesday morning that the Game 1 hero was going to be Eduardo Nunez of all people, I would’ve said we should put money on it.
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But amazingly, it happened. I was stunned and ecstatic all at the same time.
Working with a four-run lead, Kimbrel entered in the ninth and made quick work of the Dodgers, sealing the Game 1 win for the Red Sox. There is still plenty of baseball to be played, but after just one game, Eduardo Nunez is already a World Series hero.
Who knows what the heck else we will see in this series.