Red Sox Clinch Postseason Berth After Recovering From 14 Games Under .500
The Boston Red Sox have clinched a place in the postseason, completing a recovery that few thought possible when they sat 14 games below .500 in June.
Boston lost 5-1 to the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field on Sunday but celebrated about an hour later, when the Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros 4-2 to confirm the Red Sox's wild card berth. It is the second consecutive year they have reached the playoffs.
Help From a Familiar Name
The result that sealed it carried a neat piece of Boston history. The decisive contribution in Atlanta's win came from Mike Yastrzemski, grandson of Red Sox great Carl Yastrzemski, who hit a home run to put the Braves on course for victory.
The Red Sox players watched on television in the visiting clubhouse before the celebrations began, champagne and beer flowing to the sound of "Stayin' Alive."
A Season That Nearly Collapsed
The turnaround is among the most dramatic in recent club history. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow dismissed long-time manager Alex Cora in late April after just 27 games, also dismissing or reassigning six coaches. By June the team was near the bottom of the entire major league standings.
The revival began with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway from 25 to 28 June. On 3 July the Red Sox started a 15-game winning streak, equalling the franchise record set by the 1946 pennant winners featuring Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky. They went 31-5 across a stretch of July and August and have gone 52-26 since reaching their low point.
Interim manager Chad Tracy, experiencing his first postseason, said the method of clinching mattered little after the fight the team had shown.
"When you work as hard as we have worked, it was almost July [before we got going], and to fight as hard as we did, to put ourselves in the position we did, I don't think you care much how [the spot is clinched]," Tracy said. "You just want to see your ticket get punched."
Breslow defended the decision to change course so early. "We believed in the players that we had, and I felt it was really important that we acted definitively and decisively when we did, so that we could create an environment around the players that was supportive, and that would allow them to thrive," he said.
Concerns for October
Boston's hopes are likely to rest on the pitching staff. Adley Rutschman has struggled since arriving in a trade from Baltimore, Masataka Yoshida remains out with a hamstring injury, and first baseman Willson Contreras, who became the team's leading voice in the clubhouse, picked up a hamstring problem of his own this month. Garrett Crochet is working back from shoulder trouble.
On current standings the Red Sox would face the New York Yankees in the wild card round, reviving baseball's most storied rivalry in the postseason. The best-of-three Wild Card Series begins on 29 September.
