The 2018 MLB season will forever be remembered as the Red Sox’s season, after Boston set a new franchise record for regular season wins, before surging to the World Series title.
Their fourth World Series of the century, and their first since 2013, was an emphatic triumph in which they beat all of their main rivals along the way. They overcame two 100-win teams in the New York Yankees, and the defending champions the Houston Astros, before overcoming the Los Angeles Dodgers in the World Series with a convincing 4-1 win.
Their regular season record was an indication of how dangerous Alex Cera’s team had become. They passed the 100 win mark for the first time since 1946, and smashed the 105-win record that had stood since 1912, becoming the first team to qualify for the play-offs, and winning the American League East title for the third year in a row. They eventually finished with 108 wins, and they were even more impressive in the play-offs, dropping a total of two games against the Yankees and the Astros on the way to their World Series encounter with the Dodgers.
For Cera, who was in his first season as Red Sox manager, the campaign was a spectacular success. In particular, his inventive use of starting pitchers in relief roles proved to be an inspired improvisation, and a host of Red Sox players dominated the end of season awards and the statistical charts, with Mookie Betts topping the lists for batting average and slugging percentage, and JD Martinez earning more RBIs than any other player in baseball. Betts was also named as the MLB MVP; the twelfth time that a Boston player has been recognised as the best in the league.
For the beaten World Series finalists, this was another season of what might have been. The Dodgers had lost a thrilling 2017 World Series to the Astros, and were widely tipped to dominate the National League again in 2018. In fact, they were ranked as slight favourites to win baseball’s ultimate prize according to the implied probabilities on the bigbetbookmakers.com site. But their sole success in the World Series came in Game Three: an encounter that lasted a remarkable eighteen innings and took over seven hours to finish. It was the longest game in World Series history, and it kept the series alive at 2-1 but the Dodgers were unable to match that effort subsequently.
For Boston’s bitterest rivals, this was a particularly hard World Series to watch. The Yankees had trailed eight games behind the Red Sox in the East Division and had succumbed 3-1 in the Divisional Series, and their misery was compounded when Boston went on to win the World Series. The Red Sox have now won the title twice since the Yankees last tasted victory, and the 2019 season will be the tenth anniversary of their last World Series, a drought that is unacceptable for a team that was once the most dominant franchise in the whole of US sport.
