[ad_1]
LOS ANGELES – Like the most meticulous masonry bricks, 115 unframed eight-in-ten photographs filled most of the two walls of Red Sox director Alex Cora's Fenway Park office at the start of the World Series. Only the last row failed to stand out with the rest, leaving enough room for four shots to complete the symmetry. Four more bricks in the wall.
The photos, most of which were action scenes, represented each of Boston's victories: 108 in the regular season, three in the Division division of the American League and four in the AL Championship series. With four more, the Red Sox will have more victories than all World Series champions, with the exception of the Yankees, who had 125 wins in 1998. Of course, the playoffs between divisions, started in 1969 and expanded in 1995, offer more opportunities to stack W. But the flip side is an increased possibility of losses that send the best team home. It's only three times in the last 23 years of the wildcard era that the leader of the all-time wins of the regular season has won the World Series.
The Red Sox only needed five games against the Dodgers to secure those last four bricks. Cora's wall of devotion would become exactly what his team turned out to be: complete and as solid as baked clay tied with mortar.
"We now deserve to be recognized as the biggest Red Sox team of all time," said infielder Brock Holt after the victory of 119th win, a 5-1 win without a break and without stress in Sunday's match 5 in Los Angeles. And if you want to place us among the best, we will take it. This team is special. "
We will always remember the 2018 Red Sox for their collection of 119 victories. The journey on the Massachusetts Highway 119 – from Ashburnham via the Squannacook and Nashua Rivers through Groton to Concord and Walden Pond – will never be the same again.
But for all these victories, it's a defeat that has defined the soul and spirit of the team. To thoroughly understand these Red Sox, do not just remember it, you must hear the hidden story of the longest, most grueling and absurd defeat that a team has ever experienced in 665 matches of the World Series.
It was half-past midnight at Dodger Stadium and more than an hour after the Boston trains had stopped working and the bars stopped serving, while the Red Sox still lagged from the 2,611-mile traveled to Los Angeles, returned to their club-club with a 3-2 loss on foot that had taken 18 innings and seven hours and 20 minutes, the series records for work and time.
"Everyone, clubhouse!" Cora shouted into the labyrinth below the base. "Meeting!"
Cora is a new recruit who hates team meetings. The call to come together, especially at the next hour, after two long, restless days, however, suggested the importance of the moment. What happened next will make the best stories these championship brothers will tell when they gather in years, as their bodies and their competitive advantages diminish.
The Red Sox have won four of the top 15 titles in the World Series and now four of the last 15. The 2004 team broke the big gap that separated them. Their best memories are those links that took place off camera, as some players who lost their shots before the fourth match of the ALCS, the first of four straight wins against the Yankees in the face of elimination.
Such an authentic and shared moment arrived for these Red Sox in what appeared to be the empty wake of their brutal loss in the third game. Cora went into action. He saw the defeat like Henry Wadsworth Longfellow of Massachusetts, in his poem "Loss and Gain", published in 1882, the year of his death. Longfellow lamented days gone by, then turned to optimism:
"But who will dare to measure loss and gain in this way? Defeat can be a disguised victory; The lowest ebb is the tide's turn. "
"That's a big reason," says Holt, "why we won the next two games. This is a great example of how the whole group has played for each other and would do anything to help the team. "
On the morning of the third part, David Price entered Cora's office at Dodger Stadium and scolded, "I must launch today."
This proposal might have seemed absurd before the ALCS against the Astros: Price's teams lost each of their first 10 starts in the playoffs. But late in Game 4 in Houston, the southpaw warmed up to help Craig Kimbrel. During this session, Price blocked mechanical modifications in his game, moving from a more upright position to a higher position and later removing the ball from his glove from a higher position – switches that gave impetus to his fastball and a formidable sink to his change. The following night, Price lost his psychological baggage when he beat the Astros 4-1 with six white innings. Now he seemed to want the ball on every occasion. Price had either played or warmed up for seven of Boston's last nine games. When he entered Cora's office, he had had only one day off after allowing two runs in six innings in a 4-2 win in the second game.
"I'm so angry that I have to throw," said Price to Cora, then explained the source of his anger.
The Red Sox were staying at a hotel in Pasadena. The club had transported the families of the players to Los Angeles. Price had with him his 17-month-old son, Xavier. On the morning of Match 3, Price called to have breakfast. Nothing came for 90 minutes, an eternity for anyone with a hungry toddler. It turned out that several other Red Sox families had similar horror stories about hotel room service.
"David is so competitive," says Cora. "I think he likes coming to the stadium and knowing he has a chance to help the team and face each day. I think he likes it more than the usual routine of departure. "
Several Boston players complained to the management of the team, who complained to the hotel. Hotel officials promised to make amends. They reserved a ballroom each morning for a free breakfast buffet for Red Sox players and their families.
Nobody really knew the importance of this gesture until after the absurdity of the third game.
Price, Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez allied for 124 regular season games for Boston, but they all took the lead in the playoffs. Cora gave a name to these dark beginners: the Rover Scouts, as he could drop them anywhere, anytime to reinforce his usual relief corps.
The idea goes back to the 2017 series, when Cora was a coach at Astros Bench, who deployed Charlie Morton and Lance McCullers in this manner. That was what Boston had in mind when baseball operations president Dave Dombrowski acquired Eovaldi des Rays in July.
"Everyone said, you have to do something about the office. Why do you have another starter? Says Frank Wren, vice-president of baseball operations. "We made this trade specifically for October, knowing that Eovaldi could be our Charlie Morton."
At the end of the regular season, the recovery took on added importance. Dirty developed an inflammation of the left shoulder, which placed him twice on the disabled list and slowed his fast ball from 98 mph in August to 93 in September. The ace of the Sox was compromised and he was not going to improve without a prolonged rest. "It was when we realized we had to use the Rovers," says Cora.
Match 1 went exactly as Cora feared: Dirty, with less stuff, only gave him five innings and scored three. Cora helped cover the rest of the match using Rodriguez and Eovaldi, who each made goal appearances as Rovers.
Such a poor start under Sale gave LA an ideal opportunity to steal the opening match at Fenway. Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers ace, was even worse: five points in four innings in a loss that ended in an 8-4 loss. Price consolidated his victory in the second match, followed by Eovaldi.
The use of the Rover has highlighted a disinterested trend in the Red Sox, apparent since they arrived in Fort Myers, Florida, for a spring training. Head coach Tim Hyers asked Cora before the camp started talking about player rotation through situational drills on the field. Hyers would launch a throwing machine near 100 mph or shoot the most nasty bullets. The drummers were accused simply of trying to make a contact. The balls were applauded.
"I loved it," recalls Cora. "I've heard people say that one dam exit was just another. I never thought it was true.
Holt said, "No one has set their time yet and no one likes to hit a machine because it's so hard to time. But everyone has accepted. "
Boston became the best baseball team in two strokes, as did the Houston world champion the year before. In the playoffs, the Red Sox struck an absurd .364 with runners in goal position. The other playoff teams have reached .197. If the Battle of Waterloo of 1815 was won on Eton's playground, the 2018 World Series was won on the back lot of Fort Myers.
Two of the biggest hits in the series can be attributed to this devilish throwing machine. Receiver Christian Vazquez started the winning rally in Match 2 with a short two-stroke swing for a single from the opposite field, and Holt started the winning rally in Match 4 with a short two-stroke swing for a double from the opposite field.
"Brock likes to play in Boston," says Cora. "You know, in Fenway, when they will introduce Luis Tiant or one of those guys in the third round of play:" Legends of Fenway "? That's what Brock always says he wants to be. "
Watching these Red Sox games is like going back to the Kodachrome era of these legends. Finished pitchers willingly leave the enclosure between departures? The batters, in a season that counts for the first time more batters than hits, willingly shorten their cuts just to make contact?
What kind of manager could possibly get this type of player participation today?
Dombrowski did not know Cora personally. They met once on the same Caribbean island about five years ago and chatted briefly, but that was how familiar they were before the opening of the Boston Manager position. last year.
"Dave decided to clean everything up," says owner John Henry. "He wanted a fresh start."
After winning 93 games in 2017, the Red Sox lost to the Astros 3-1 in the Division series. Two days later, Dombrowski dismissed his manager, John Farrell. And four days later, Dombrowski, Henry, and other staffers were interviewing Cora in a hotel suite in New York City during a day off for Houston in the ALCS. Cora was highly recommended by Allard Baird, vice-president of the players' teams, and Eddie Romero, assistant general manager, who had known him since his stint as a Red Sox championship player from 2005 to 2008. "All the people I have talked to," said Dombrowski, "did not stop telling me that he was one of the smartest ball players that I've ever talked to," said Dombrowski. they never met. "
Cora beat her managerial skills by playing the winter ball to Sandy Alomar Sr., her home port of Puerto Rico, who taught her how the count, outs, run and score dictate decision making. "Do you see this painting?" Alomar will tell him. "It's not for the fans. It's for the manager and the player. The dashboard tells you how to play. "
The Red Sox have thrown at Cora hypothetical situations concerning front-office, media and baseball operations and asked him how he would solve them. Cora was in the room for three hours. By the time he left. he had essentially the job.
"Confident," Henry shared his first impression with Dombrowski.
One thought harassed Boston's arms: was he as well confident? An answer has proved particularly troubling. They asked Cora how he would react to reduce a star's playing time. He described the problem as "no problem at all". He would simply put the best team on the field.
"We thought he did everything except that," says a team source. "I saw clubs tear up when a star player sat down and became a part-time player. Frankly, his answer seemed naive.
Two months into the season, the Red Sox needed a place for second baseman Dustin Pedroia, who was returning from the disabled list. Cora advised Dombrowski to remove Hanley Ramirez, the team's first player, who still owed $ 15.5 million this year. Ramirez saw less of it in bats because of the signature of DH's free agent, J. D. Martinez, and the new signature of first baseman Mitch Moreland. He was being beaten by the velocity, indicative of a slow bat.
"Hanley has to play every day to hit," says Cora. "He was not going to play in a part-time role. People said it was about money. It was not at all. It was a baseball gesture. "
Cutting Ramirez, the oldest member of the team, was another advantage: his strong personality would have disappeared from the clubhouse, which would allow Martinez and champion Mookie Betts to flourish as leaders. Cora knew that with the departure of Ramirez, it would be their team. "Well," said the source of the team, "I guess he's passed the whole test."
Porcello said: "You can see more than any other team the selflessness and cohesion of this team. And AC sets the tone.
Before the second game, Holt had entered the official media interview, at home, with clichés and incalculable answers, and had let slip a very hot grip when someone asked him what was the difference between Farrell and Cora.
"For me, it's communication," said Holt. "Being able to know what's going on, what's going on in his head, when we play, when we're not playing, some situations in which we could come in during a game. This makes it so much easier for a team to go out and perform. There was not much communication in the past.
"Being not too far from playing himself, he understands that the game is difficult. And he believes in us. I just think that the general atmosphere he brings to the team at the clubhouse is so positive that it's easy for us to go out and do what we did. "
At the beginning of the 19th century, when the world was a much less connected place and the places and creatures considered exotic were much more numerous, the Americans declared by witnessing the extraordinary "I saw l & # 39; elephant. " The sentence probably dates from the arrival of The First Elephant on American soil, circa 1796. It was exhibited on Broadway in New York. Seeing the elephant in this ever-shrinking world – a world with probes running fast past Jupiter, a map of the human genome, parked cars and cloned sheep – requires a stricter definition of exotic. And the moments of fear in the World Series have become equally rare.
Then the third match was held in Chavez Ravine. It was not just the longest playoff game ever played. It was as phenomenal as a six-ton pachyderm in New York in 1796.
"I've never seen anything like it," said David Freese, first baseman, and that's because nobody walks on this Earth has seen anything like it. "
The rubbish of the wrestling marveled: 561 pitches, 440 minutes, 336 baseballs, 125 pitched bullets, 46 players, 34 strikeouts, 18 pitchers and two innings of seventh innings, the second of which took place on the 14th. The match ended at 12:30 Pacific daylight time when Dodgers first baseman Max Muncy escaped in front of an orange moon hanging over the San Gabriel Mountains as a bedside night light. . Barry Levinson has never done better.
The Midnight Muncy explosion was sparked by Eovaldi, the alleged Coach of match 4 who was preparing for a third game in a row. Cora managed the game like a stuntman, aggressive at every turn, burning pitchers like oil, which made the audience gasp. He used all the players on his team except Sale and Drew Pomeranz. He introduced Eovaldi into the game in the 12th.
"At each heat, I came back to the field and I thought he was done," Holt recalls. And at each round, he returned. Four, five, six innings. . . . It was amazing. "
"My God, just an animal," said Freese. "You start thinking about [Madison] Bumgarner and what he did in 2014. I know I did it. Very few guys can do it. Which arm. "
This is the only time in the last 45 years that a relief pitcher has pitched six innings during a rest day in a World Series game. This feat was made more remarkable by the story of Eovaldi's wounds. He underwent surgery on Tommy John's right elbow in high school and a second in 2016, as well as a repair of his flexor tendon. Her convalescence after the operations was prolonged in March after the discovery of loose elbow bodies. He did not play in the major leagues until May. At 28, he is eligible for free competition and his first big contract, this off season.
And yet, he was there, making 97 shots in his third appearance in four days. The Dodgers were stunned and not necessarily in awe.
"We do not do that here to our guys," said a Dodger decision maker. Indeed, Los Angeles made Pedro Baez unavailable in the fourth game after participating in each of the first three games. Without Baez, each of the six surveys that Roberts brought to the game gives way. It's the first time that such a long series of decisions is going so badly in a World Series match.
Conversely, a Red Sox staff member, noting Baez's day off, said, "Did Baez fall? In the world series? When do our guys want to get out of the office everyday?
Eovaldi, who measures 6 feet 2 inches and weighs 225 pounds, is one of the strongest players in the team among the Red Sox. "A beast," Porcello called. "He's warming up with 225-pound squats."
"No one in baseball can throw a baseball like Nathan," says Holt. "It launches 101mph heaters, 97mph knives, slits that drop off the table and slow hooks. The guy is a monster. No one else can do all these things.
In the third game, Eovaldi threw 18 shots at 99 or higher, and 16 to 82 or less. Cora said that Eovaldi kicked off his last run when Muncy beat a 90 mph cutter.
Eovaldi dropped his head and left the field, joining Bill Bevens of the 1947 Yankees as the most galling losers in the history of the World Series. Bevens lost the draw to the Brooklyn Dodgers and lost the game with two outs in the ninth. The entire Red Sox team waited for Eovaldi at the steps of the canoe. The first to greet him, even before reaching the stairs, is Price, 33, who pummeled Eovaldi on the chest and back in appreciation. Cora was next. Had Eovaldi been so gallant that it seemed he had been the one to hit the homer without an appointment.
Price would not leave Eovaldi. He joined him in the training room where he sat down with Eovaldi, who had his arm "inflamed" with inflammation by a coach, as part of his normal recovery after the match. He was sitting next to him in the team bus to return to the hotel Pasadena. The next day, Price even took an adjacent bath with Eovaldi in the hot and cold baths.
"No one has ever done anything like this for me," says Eovaldi. "He's an excellent teammate."
No team has ever invested so much in a World Series defeat as the Red Sox in the third game. She had all the marks of a devastating defeat, which had reduced her lead to 2-1 and gave Los Angeles an apparent advantage in the fourth game. since Price and Eovaldi had just launched. Nobody knew who was starting the fourth game for Boston 16 hours later. (At 2:30 pm, Cora chose Rodriguez.) Most people saw a team beaten. Cora saw a proud one, that is why he called the meeting of the team.
"Listen to me!" He said. The players were still mostly in their soiled and heavy uniforms. Some have removed sweatshirts or tape on their wrists. Some sat at their lockers.
"We have just played one of the biggest games in the history of the World Series. Red Sox … Dodgers … Dodger Stadium … World Series … And the way you've competed is something we should all be very proud of. It's a great team. It was a great game. And you have proved it tonight. And Nathan … "
Cora then distinguished Eovaldi, praising him for his efforts and selfishness. When Cora had finished, the room burst into a standing ovation.
"There were tears," says Holt. Porcello was one of those who were crying.
And then, one by one, every player, coach and staffer queues to kiss Eovaldi in turn – and not one of those quick, "good game, brother hugs".
"I speak like a minute hug each," says Porcello. "What Nathan did was the quintessence of our team. Each player does everything he can to help the team win. That's what sport should be. It's about everyone working together.
"We just lost a World Series game in 18 innings. But after that [meeting]we did not feel like losing. It was as if we had won.
A little later, as Cora got up from the match, he looked up to see a line outside his office. Price, Porcello and Sale, whose combined contracts total $ 332 million. They all told him that they were ready to start the next game.
The fiasco of the service of stage has turned into a blessing. Just hours after Game 3's loss, the Red Sox gathered for a team breakfast with families. The room was filled with tables of 10, with plenty of space for the kids. The atmosphere was relaxed. This was the best type of loss recovery.
At eight thirty, just eight hours after launching the last pitch at Muncy, Eovaldi, holding his four-year-old son Jace, whose name is sewn in his glove, entered the room and found Cora .
"I'm ready to go tonight," he told his manager.
The victory number 118 did not need Rover, it was the return of a deficit of 4-0 in the seventh inning. Only four other teams had already rallied so far in a World Series match.
The match began to rage for the Dodgers when manager Dave Roberts ran to the mound with one on and one out on the seventh to give his starter, southpaw Rich Hill, a pitching speech. Hill turned his back on Roberts, but when he turned around and saw his manager approaching, he handed him the baseball, thinking that Roberts was there to replace him with a replacement. Roberts then had no choice but to take him outside, after which Boston scored seven hits, including a left-center-left draw and a two-man advantage. first goal Steve Pearce.
The victory number 119 was complete. Pearce, the third hitter of the game, gave the Red Sox the advantage of staying with a two-point shot from the still-reduced version of Kershaw, who became the first pitcher to lose a fourth game by elimination. Pearce also added the last run, with a solo blast. He had four hits and seven runs in his last six clear rounds to win the MVP title.
This win seemed as solid and navigable as the ducks that will be carrying the Red Sox around Boston for a fourth parade since 2004. The prize – yes, again – was superb in the fifth game, as did Joe Kelly behind him. And at different times, Eovaldi, a day off after his marathon 97 lengths, and Sale, despite the barking of his shoulder for two months, were warming in the office. Cora gave the ninth to Sale, who supplied the last brick of the wall by eliminating three Dodgers.
About 15 minutes later, on the ground, Porcello was still crying. In the last week of the season, Porcello, Moreland, Price and second baseman Ian Kinsler, who had all competed in the World Series and lost, vowed "three, four, five, 13 beers", said Porcello. "That we would do everything we could to win it this time. I can not hold back my tears. I'm sorry. This. . . it's beautiful. "
Meanwhile, with a little less seriousness, Holt confirmed his newly acquired status as a future Third Inning Legend. "I will be in the box and greet the crowd," he said. "I'll be back for years."
This status is reserved for all those who contributed to the 119. Each baseball season crowns a champion, but not all champions are so exalted. These Red Sox became legends not only for their victory, but also for their defeat. Game 3 is a reference point of all time for the infinity of baseball, a lesson that the horizon of a game can extend even further than we do. Imagine that the effort remains and will remain. The valor of Eovaldi is above all effort. The appreciation and love of his teammates facing the defeat will continue.
In 1973, after being defeated by Ken Norton, Muhammad Ali said, "I never thought I would lose, but now that it happened, the only thing to do is to do it right. It is my obligation to all those who believe in me. We must all take defeats in life. "
The Red Sox have lost their reason. They have lost honorably. They lost together so they could win together. The lowest ebb was the turning of the tide.
Source link
