By Matt McCarthy, 985TheSportsHub.com
This is my mea culpa.
I doubted the Red Sox this year. I had legitimate reasons to doubt them. We all did.
By winning the American League pennant, the Sox proved me wrong.
I’m sure happy to be wrong about this one.
What the relentless Red Sox have accomplished in 2018 is truly remarkable. They ran roughshod over the American League’s worst and the American League’s best.
It didn’t matter if it was the putrid Orioles in July, the Yankees in the Division Series, or the defending World Series champion Astros in the American League Championship Series, they steamrolled them all.
It took the Sox only four games to eliminate the 100-win Yankees. It took them just five games to send the 103-win Astros packing. They went 5-0 on the Astros and Yankees lawns.
The Boston Buzzsaw went into the Bronx and Houston and dismantled the best competition the American League had to offer.
They did it with ease.
Oct 9, 2018; Bronx, NY: Boston Red Sox designated hitter J.D. Martinez and right fielder Mookie Betts celebrate after beating the New York Yankees in game four of the 2018 ALDS playoff baseball series at Yankee Stadium. (Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports)
The 108 wins weren’t a fluke. There’s no fluke here. The Red Sox were the best team in the American League this year.
In the end, it didn’t look like anyone was close to them.
There were many reasons why the naysayers, the doubters, and the prognosticators of October doom said the Red Sox couldn’t get past the other elite teams in the top-heavy American League. None of those reasons came to fruition.
We said the bullpen would sink them in postseason.
It hasn’t.
We said the starters couldn’t deliver in October.
They have.
We said David Price could never win when it counts.
He shoved that one down our throats with his dominant Game 5 performance. Price, for the first time in October, is a winner. He deserves the accolades and praise associated with it.
Price did all we ever wanted him to do. He won.
After two straight playoff flameouts, all we wanted from the Red Sox was a reason to believe they could win. It is now indisputable: they can win, and those who didn’t believe they could were wrong.
Make no mistake about it: the Red Sox haven’t met the ultimate goal. There will be sour taste in all of our mouths if they don’t close out October with a World Series win over an inferior Dodgers or Brewers team.
But they won the pennant. The doubters didn’t have them winning the pennant.
I know I didn’t.
I was wrong.
You can hear Matt McCarthy on 98.5 The Sports Hub’s own Hardcore Baseball podcast and on various 98.5 The Sports Hub programs. Follow him on Twitter @MattMcCarthy985.