It was the perfect postseason for the Boston Red Sox
By Cody Rivera
There couldn’t have been a better way for the Boston Red Sox to win their ninth world championship in franchise history.
Break out the champagne. Get the duck boats ready to roll. The Boston Red Sox are the world champions once again.
The Red Sox wrapped up an incredible season on Sunday night, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in Game 5 at Dodger Stadium to claim the franchise’s ninth World Series championship, and the fourth since 2004. They did it behind yet another incredible pitching effort by David Price, who pitched into the eighth inning and has undoubtedly redeemed himself for all of his previous October failures.
In an odd but yet very effective move, Red Sox ace Chris Sale recorded the final outs in the ninth inning, and ended the series by striking out former Boston nemesis Manny Machado. What an ending to an amazing season, the first under manager Alex Cora, and it may have even been the greatest season in Red Sox history.
For the Red Sox and their fans, it was the perfect postseason. After winning a franchise-record 108 games in 2018, the Red Sox couldn’t have had a more enjoyable path to winning the Commissioner’s Trophy. In the division series, they played their most hated rival, the New York Yankees, and they eliminated the Yankees and celebrated on the field at Yankee Stadium. Few things in sports are more enjoyable than something like that.
Then in the American League Championship Series, after dropping Game 1 to the Houston Astros at Fenway Park, the Red Sox breezed back for four straight wins and eliminated the Astros at their home ballpark as well. This was special too, because in last October, the Astros kicked the Red Sox right in the rear end in the division series. They knocked them out in four games and gave Sale a brutal beating on the mound, all en route to winning the World Series themselves.
Finally, in the World Series, the Red Sox played against one of the National League’s most iconic franchises, the Dodgers, and it revived a little bit of the Boston-Los Angeles rivalry that is most heated in the NBA with the Celtics and Lakers. Boston fans got to chant “Beat LA! Beat LA!” once again, and that is one of the most popular things you can say as a Boston sports fan.
The absolute icing on the cake was when the final out was made against Manny Machado, who played for the Baltimore Orioles for years and is more or less considered an enemy in New England. Machado was traded to the Dodgers midseason, and it almost seemed like fate that the Red Sox were matched up with him once again on baseball’s biggest stage.
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It was a very memorable World Series for Red Sox fans, with some great memories like Price’s postseason redemption, and Steve Pearce’s three home runs in Games 4 and 5 (which contributed heavily to Pearce winning the World Series MVP award).
But no memory will be sweeter than seeing Sale strikeout Machado to clinch the title, followed by the Red Sox players swarming the field and celebrating what was a magical season. After 86 years of nothing, the Red Sox now have four championships in 14 years.
It’s safe to say the tides have turned in the Boston baseball scene.