By Jeff Louderback
The Red Sox roster features talented depth, but on paper it does not match what the World Series winning clubs in 2004 and 2007 featured. Fortunately, championships are not won on paper. Boston’s ALDS clinching 3-1 victory at Tampa Bay demonstrated why the Red Sox success in 2013 can be attributed to a true team approach.
Xander Bogaerts, who entered as a pinch-hitter for Stephen Drew, was one of the team’s offensive players of the game without even getting a hit. The 21-year-old rookie, who opened the 2013 campaign at Double-A Portland, drew two walks and scored two runs. His patient plate approach provides a glimpse of why he will open 2014 as either the starting shortstop or the starting third baseman for Boston.
Craig Breslow is a set-up man, and for most of his Major League career the Yale product has excelled in anonymity as a middle reliever. In 2013, he has emerged as one of the better late-inning bullpen arms in the game. In Game Four at Tampa Bay, Breslow was arguably the most important contributor with 1.2 scoreless frames, including four strikeouts.
Koji Uehara, who was signed to serve as a seventh inning guy but developed into the best closer in the majors, recorded a four out save, striking out two and not allowing a base runner. One night after surrendering a walk-off home run to Jose Lobaton, Uehara rebounded and overmatched all four hitters he faced, including a strikeouts of Evan Longoria to end the game.
The seventh inning was a microcosm of how the Red Sox have frequently won this year. With one out and Rays power left-hander Jake McGee on the mound, the right-handed hitting Bogaerts hit for Drew. Bogaerts, who is still vibrantly green with limited Major League experience, fell behind 1-2 but worked a walk.
McGee followed by striking out Will Middlebrooks, but as they have on multiple occasions throughout the year, the Red Sox rallied with two outs. Jacoby Ellsbury lined a single, advancing Bogaerts to third.
Rays manager Joe Maddon summoned Joel Peralta, who uncorked a wild pitch that permitted Bogaerts to cross the plate with the game-tying run. Shane Victorino was jammed with a 1-1 fast ball from Peralta but hit a soft grounder that he beat out for an infield single, allowing Ellsbury to score the go-ahead run.
In the top of the ninth, Rays erratic closer Fernando Rodney took the mound and walked Bogaerts to open the frame. A wild pitch advanced Bogaerts to second, and after Middlebrooks struck out, Ellsbury walked and Victorino was hit by a pitch.
Maddon brought in Chris Archer, who served up a liner to right field by Dustin Pedroia that plated Bogaerts.
Once a team that mostly relied upon power, the Red Sox scored all three runs without an extra base hit (a wild pitch, an infield single and a sacrifice fly).
The Red Sox are a team that can generate runs with home runs and doubles (with the occasional triple), but what has propelled them to 97 wins in the regular season and a trip to the ALCS is their ability to extend pitch counts, draw walks, get fly balls when runners are on third with no outs or one out and getting ground balls to the right side with a runner on second and no outs.
Facing Detroit – a club that features the ERA leader (Anibal Sanchez), the likely AL Cy Young (Max Scherzer) and one of the best starters in baseball (Justin Verlander) – Boston will need to executive the fundamentals to score runs in key situations. They have shown all season that fundamental baseball defines what this team is all about.
