By now we know that this Red Sox team is special.
We spent all spring watching a first-year manager in Alex Cora lead Boston to a historic start. We collectively shared the nerves that come when a division race tightens up, only to watch Boston completely blow the doors off the whole thing for a third straight American League East title. And on Monday, we all reveled in the team winning a franchise-record 106th game.
I’m not breaking any news when I say that by any statistical metric, this current group is one of the greatest teams in Red Sox history. But great teams lose in October all the time.
Greatness is not a golden ticket to the World Series.
Which is why when I heard Atlanta Braves manager Brian Snitker’s comments following his team’s division-clinching win, my confidence in the Red Sox heading into the postseason soared through the roof.
“I say they got the ‘it.’ I don’t know what that is but when a team has ‘it,’ it’s pretty cool,” Snitker told MLB on Fox reporter Ken Rosenthal. “You can’t manufacture it. You can’t go out and put it together to create it, but when you’re on a club that has that ‘it’ factor, you don’t ever want the year to end.”
Sound like any team you know?
Snitker was obviously talking about his young and energetic up-start Braves team, but it could easily be applied to the Red Sox, too.
Yes, Boston is loaded from top to bottom in a lineup that could very well feature the two front-runners in the American League MVP race in Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez. The pitching, while inconsistent at times, is headlined by Chris Sale, two former Cy Young winners not named Chris Sale and one of the best closers in the modern era.
But beyond stats and marquee names, there’s something about Boston that can’t be squeezed into a box score. It’s something that certainly wasn’t present in the last two embarrassing postseason exits, and much like Snitker, the funny thing is I can’t even pinpoint exactly what it is.
You just know it when you see it and these Red Sox have the “it” factor.
I could be very wrong (I’m probably right), and we’ll find out soon enough when Boston sends Sale to the mound to host the winner of the one-game Wild Card playoff between the New York Yankees and Oakland Athletics for the opening game of the American League Division Series at Fenway Park on Oct. 5.
But I’m just not as nervous as I’ve been in the past for the start of the playoffs.
From an improbable six-run rally against the Tampa Bay Rays in April, to a 13-pitch, go-ahead grand slam off the bat of Mookie Betts against the Toronto Blue Jays, to 37-year-old Brandon Phillips putting the bow on another monumental comeback against Snitker’s Braves in his first game with Boston, this team has proven time and time again that they just won’t quit.
It helps that Boston leads the rest of baseball in nearly every offensive category. Easily topping MLB with a league-best 5.3 runs per game, the Red Sox often make it feel like no deficit is insurmountable.
It also helps to rank fourth in strikeouts and fifth in ERA as a pitching staff despite constant whining (myself included) about the bullpen’s shortcomings. A top-tier defensive ranking (seventh overall, .987 fielding percentage) doesn’t hurt either.
But there’s something intangible there when these Red Sox take the field. Maybe it’s just an aura of confidence brought on by a record-setting season. Maybe I’m just reaching for something that’s not actually there.
Call me crazy, but if you’ve been watching this team all year, then you see it, too.
(Jay McAree can be reached at 369-3371, jmcaree@cmonitor.com or on Twitter @JayMcAree.)