NEW YORK — A third straight American League East title set the record straight.
An 11-6 Sox victory over the Yankees on Thursday night gave the Red Sox the East and champagne yet again, an outcome that became expected in a dominant campaign. After two straight early exits, the Sox are set for postseason baseball once again.
A regular season that will be remembered as one of the best in franchise history answered a lot of questions that formed in the past year. Even as the Sox won a second straight East title in 2017, a lot was left unclear.
How much of a clubhouse shakeup did the Sox need? Where did the best offense in baseball disappear to?
We know now that 2016, the year this run of East championships began, was no fluke. The lineup was the best in baseball that year, but lost a ton of power when David Ortiz retired. Without Big Papi, young players like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts struggled in 2017. It was unclear what to expect entering this year.
How good are they really?
Boston Red Sox
The Red Sox got their answer in 2018, with some new blood leading the charge. Alex Cora spearheaded the environment of change and comfort that a modern-day clubhouse needs, and did so with remarkable speed. Dave Dombrowski's second nine-figure acquisition as the president of baseball operations in Boston, J.D. Martinez, was a smashing success, and gave the Sox the masher they needed in Ortiz's absence.
Meanwhile, Dombrowski’s first nine-figure acquisition in Boston, David Price, led the charge down the stretch and painted a new picture of how dominant he could be in a Sox uniform.
The Sox are one win away from matching their franchise record for victories, 105, set in 1912. Chris Sale's potential Cy Young campaign provided the best entertainment on the mound since Pedro Martinez.
Sox ownership greenlighted the highest payroll in baseball, and was rewarded with the highest win percentage in baseball. There was a pennant race for much of the summer, but not all, despite a schedule that looked like it was primed to create drama.
The likelihood was always that these late September games with the Yankees would mean something. The Sox and Yanks meet one more time, with three more games to end the regular season.
By then, the only matter that may need to be decided is whether the Yankees host the Wild Card game.
Cora expressed surprise that September didn’t end up more wild than it was. He pointed to not only the Yankees, but the expected dominant pitching from the Mets, whom the Sox just faced in Boston.
“I hate to look ahead, but I did before the season,” Cora said. “I’m like, ‘September’s going to be fun, but it’s going to be tough.’ And we’re in this spot now. Hopefully, like I said, just finish it off, do what we have to do and then take care of business in our clubhouse and go from there. Before the season I look up: we have Cleveland, Houston, the Mets, the Yankees and Cleveland. That’s a pretty tough schedule.”