Among the 25 World Series champions since 2000, how did the 2018 Red Sox land at the top of the list?
The 2018 Red Sox won 108 games, the most of any World Series-winner this century. The reason that the 115-loss Orioles tied for the fifth-most losses since 1901 was because of these Sox: Baltimore lost 16 of their 19 meetings with Boston, and were outscored by 61 runs in those contests, more than twice the rate against non-Red Sox opponents, where the Orioles were 44-99. Similarly, the Blue Jays were probably a mediocre club, but going 4-15 against the Sox led them to a 73-89 record instead.
It wasn’t just that the Sox took out the AL East’s worst clubs while unbalanced divisions remained in place. The Yankees won 100 games and one of the two wild cards, while the Rays went 90-72. Boston went 10-9 against New York, with both teams winning as many games as they did despite that even-ish split, and the Rays might have even challenged the Athletics for the second wild card if they didn’t have to play Boston and New York a combined 38 times, in which they went 17-21. The Red Sox played in an intensely competitive division in which they completely changed the trajectory of two teams, finishing eight games ahead of a 100-win team.
The Red Sox were dominant because they were top-to-bottom capable. Their 21-year-old rookie, Rafael Devers, was one of the weak spots in the lineup: he hit 21 home runs and 55 extra-base hits overall in 121 games. Xander Bogaerts and Andrew Benintendi were at the peak of their respective powers, Jackie Bradley Jr. managed to both hit and play his usual world-class defense, and part-timers like Mitch Moreland, Steve Pearce and Brock Holt all did their jobs as needed. J.D. Martinez proved a more than adequate replacement for the usual banner David Ortiz year, and 25-year-old Mookie Betts won the AL batting title while leading MLB in average, took home Gold Glove honors in right, posted a 30-30 season and won AL MVP while leading the majors in wins above replacement.
Chris Sale was lights out, and followed in the rotation by David Price, Rick Porcello and Eduardo Rodriguez, who ranged from well above-average to excellent, then Boston added Nathan Eovaldi midseason. The bullpen was the only suspect part of the club, but it didn’t matter that much with Boston winning by an average of 1.4 runs per game even with a weak pen. And in the postseason, the Sox turned to Sale, Price and the lights-out Eovaldi to make up the difference in key moments for the pen, erasing that weakness when it did matter.
The Sox defeated the 100-win Yankees in the ALDS in four games, took down the 103-win Astros in the ALCS in five games, then toppled the 92-win Dodgers in the World Series for their ninth championship in another five games. There was very little drama that October: just as in the regular season, the Red Sox took care of business from start to finish.
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