Boston Red Sox 2021 Post Season Thread

Garrett Whitlock is Red Sox closer to start postseason: 10 Things We Learned from Boston’s 6-2 Wild Card win over Yankees
Updated: 3:42 a.m. | Published: 11:48 p.m.

By Matt Vautour | mvautour@masslive.com

BOSTON — Garrett Whitlock’s much-celebrated journey that took him from overlooked Yankees minor leaguer to Red Sox Rule 5 Draft pick now has the rookie in the Boston Red Sox closer role in the postseason.

He gave up a home run to red-hot Giancarlo Stanton, but pitched an otherwise perfect ninth inning as Boston defeated the Yankees, 6-2 in the Wild Card Game to advance to the American League Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays.

It wasn’t a save situation, but historically most managers including Alex Cora use their closers for the ninth in any scenario other than a huge lead. It was just Whitlock’s second outing since coming off the injured list, but he looked sharp against the team that let him go.

His role was one of 10 things we learned from the Red Sox postseason opener:

Jerry Remy throwing out the first pitch was a nice departure from norms — In the 2018 playoffs, the Red Sox and Yankees largely used players who’d had history beating the other in the rivalry to throw out the ceremonial pitch. But Boston instead chose Jerry Remy to do the honors for the Wild Card game. The beloved Red Sox broadcaster, who is battling cancer, threw a strike to friend and fellow NESN broadcaster Dennis Eckersley.

Boston wears red uniform tops — For all the late-season chatter about the possibility of the Red Sox wearing their Boston Marathon-themed yellow and powder blue alternates in the postseason, they wore their red third jerseys with white pants for the game instead of their traditional home whites.

Alex Rodriguez and Jason Varitek still haven’t spoken — Standing on the Fenway Park warning track near the Boston dugout former Yankee turned ESPN broadcaster Alex Rodriguez was looking in the other direction when former Red Sox catcher turned coach Jason Varitek jogged past him onto the field during the pregame of Tuesday’s Wild Card Game. Both men were about 15 yards from where Varitek introduced Rodriguez’s nose to his catching glove in 2004 sparking an altercation between the two teams.

Rodriguez was asked later on the broadcast whether the two had spoken since.

“Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. Stay tuned. Stay tuned,” he said.

Giancarlo Stanton doesn’t have Fenway’s dimensions quite figured out yet — In 102 plate appearances in 24 career games at Fenway Park, the Yankee slugger had hit .389 with six home runs for the Yankees and Marlins coming into Tuesday’s game, but he misjudged the park on what he thought was his seventh long ball there.

He stood and watched his deep fly ball to left-center before realizing it was going to hit the wall instead of clearing it. Instead of a likely double, he settled for a long single. In his defense, ESPN’s Matt Vasgersian and Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling each began home run calls and had to backtrack.

The Red Sox avoided becoming the fourth consecutive Boston team to have its season ended by a New York rival. The Bruins and Celtics lost in the playoffs to the New York Islanders and Brooklyn Nets respectively while the Patriots, who missed the playoffs finished the 2020 season with a win over the New York Jets.

Sept. 24 was an aberration — When Nathan Eovaldi, who’d previously dominated the Yankees, couldn’t get out of the third inning and Gerrit Cole, who’d struggled against the Red Sox, was dominant through the first five innings in New York’s 8-3 win on Sept. 24, it was reasonable to wonder if both pitchers’ prior history in the rivalry was changing.

But that game was the exception and not the start of some new rule. Eovaldi gave up one run on four hits and no walks while striking out eight. The Red Sox chased Cole, who gave up three runs in two innings, and got the quick hook from Aaron Boone.

Cora trusts his bullpen and is rewarded — Eovaldi had allowed just one run on four hits and had thrown only 71 pitches when Cora came and got him with one out and one on in the sixth. That meant asking his bullpen to get 11 outs with a two-run lead.

After Ryan Brasier finished the sixth, Tanner Houck and Hansel Robles each pitched a scoreless inning in the seventh and eighth respectively setting up Whitlock.

Eovaldi should be available out of the bullpen early vs. Rays — Cora might have used Eovaldi out of the bullpen in Tampa no matter how many pitches he threw Tuesday. But after just 71, he’s almost certain to be available for at least an inning

Kiké Hernandez and Xander Bogaerts delivered a perfect relay — Coming into the season, when Hernandez was expected to play mostly second base, there figured to be plenty of Hernandez to Bogaerts combinations in 4-6-3 double plays.

It didn’t happen as much with Hernandez playing mostly centerfield, but they hooked up for one of the biggest outs of the season in the top of the sixth. Running from first Aaron Judge tried scoring on Stanton’s deep drive off the wall in left-center, but Hernandez fielded it on one bounce off the wall, and hit Bogaerts on the fly. The shortstop spun and zipped a low throw to the third-base side of the plate, where Kevin Plawecki waited for Judge for any easy tag out.

Nathan Eovaldi’s dominance in Red Sox Wild Card win, cements his ace status, postseason legacy | Matt Vautour
Published: 6:20 a.m.

By Matt Vautour | mvautour@masslive.com

BOSTON — Nathan Eovaldi’s defining Boston Red Sox moment is no longer the heroic effort in a loss.

With every pitch magnified in the winner-take-all Wild Card Game, the righty looked every bit the modern ace. He outdueled Gerrit Cole and set the tone for Boston’s 6-2 win over the New York Yankees, Tuesday at Fenway Park.

Before that, Eovaldi had one of the strangest legacies of any Boston athlete. He was revered for his performance in a loss. In an era with so much winning, even great games in defeat are easy to forget among so many memorable efforts in victories.

But in the 18-inning Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, Eovaldi took the ball to start the 12th and pitched the rest of the way. It was his third outing in four days. He saved the pitching staff and inspired the roster, but he lost the game. He gave up a walk-off home run to Max Muncy in the 18th for Boston’s only defeat en route to a World Series championship. Nobody in history got as much positive response for giving up a walk-off.

Now he’s the guy who beat the Yankees in the 2021 Wild Card Game. Everything is heightened in a one-game playoff. Everything is heightened even more when it’s Red Sox and Yankees. Eovaldi rose to the moment and not only changed his legacy, but the long-term perception of the 2021 Red Sox season.

The expectation bar for this team has bounced wildly throughout the year. In July they were among the best teams and best stories in baseball as they led the American League East after finishing last in 2020. In late September they were at risk of missing the postseason altogether.

One-game playoffs aren’t really a fair definition of anything, but Bucky Dent’s presence at Fenway Park Tuesday was a reminder that nobody cares if it’s fair or not. Beating New York means that the 2021 Red Sox are a team that at worst will have played in the ALDS against the defending American League champs. Not bad after their 2020 disaster. They’re a team that extended their growing dominance over the Yankees in the postseason. Curses and droughts feel like a lifetime ago.

Coming in with stakes that high, Eovaldi’s demeanor was an asset. Unlike so many previous Red Sox aces, Eovaldi doesn’t radiate the outward rage that fueled Josh Beckett or Chris Sale or the edginess that pushed Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez. His stoicism has been important throughout his career and seemed especially valuable Tuesday.

He shook off a first-inning Giancarlo Stanton blast that nearly got out of the park and struck out Joey Gallo to get out of the top of the inning scoreless.

“He’s so calm. When he shows up to the ballpark, he’s the same guy when he pitches and when he doesn’t. He was waiting for this one,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.

Against the same Yankees that knocked him out in the third inning less than two weeks ago, Eovaldi dominated.

“You look at the game beforehand that he pitched against the Yankees and then you see what he does tonight. Very stoic on the mound, going up there and filling up the zone and challenging guys. That was huge,” Kyle Schwarber said. “It was phenomenal. It was exactly what we needed out of the guy and he came out and he delivered.”

Eovaldi said the struggles on Sept. 24 were valuable.

“I felt like they were jumping on my fastball early in the counts, and I was staying away with the fastball at that point and they were able to drive the ball (on Sept. 24),” he said. “Tonight I wanted to make sure to establish the fastball inside. And the second time through, I was able to stay away from them but also keep them honest inside and I think that game plan worked out well.”

Eovaldi went 5.1 innings and gave up one run on four hits. He struck eight and didn’t walk anybody.

“Nate was great. We learned a lot last week,” Cora said. “We executed our plan the way we wanted to, and he was amazing.”

Amazing or not, after Eovaldi gave up a home run to Anthony Rizzo and an infield hit to Aaron Judge on just his 71st pitch with one out in the sixth, Cora came to get him rather than give Stanton a third look at him. It was a reminder that with the added emphasis on bullpens and analytics, aces aren’t going to see the late innings of a postseason game much anymore. Cora has long been committed to taking a thriving starter out too soon than risking the consequences of waiting too long.

The bullpen gave up just one run in the final 3.2 innings. Eovaldi’s low pitch total makes him a candidate to join that bullpen when the Red Sox face Tampa in the ALDS. Cora wasn’t ready to think or talk about Eovaldi’s next step. He wanted to cherish this one a little longer:

“We had the right guy on the mound today.”

Scattered Thoughts on a Wildcard Game win

Big thought: It was neat.
By Matt_Collins@MattRyCollins Oct 6, 2021, 9:01am EDT

I would honestly be floored if this was the first you were hearing this, but on the off chance you didn’t know, the Red Sox are going to the ALDS thanks to a 6-2 win over the Yankees in Tuesday’s Wildcard Game. As I typically do after a postseason game, I had some scattered thoughts on the big night at Fenway.

And that’s exactly where we need to start here. I was not at the park on Tuesday, but you didn’t have to be to feel the electricity. Between just how big of a game this was — and it really doesn’t get much bigger than a winner-take-all game against the Yankees as underdogs — and the fact that we just spent a year without being able to do that kind of thing, the crowd was not going to stop all night. We talked earlier in the week about how home field was a big deal, and we saw it. I’m really not sure I see that game going the same way without the early energy boost.
And along those same lines, the first inning was massive for this game. The crowd was amped up to start, and they just needed a clean first from Nathan Eovaldi to really explode. He came through, and then in the bottom half Xander Bogaerts hit a two-run shot. From that moment forward, the crowd didn’t die down for more than a minute the rest of the way.
It’s certainly a little extra sweet after it leaked out that the Yankees had chosen to play the Red Sox in the event of a tiebreaker. They got them, and the Red Sox were sure to give them what they asked for. To be clear, I think that was the smart and obvious move for the Yankees in their spot, with the other choice being traveling to Toronto, but that doesn’t mean it’s any less sweet to turn around and beat them.


In terms of the game itself, to me the biggest story was Eovaldi. In a battle of the aces, it was Gerrit Cole getting all the shine before the game, and just like in the previous bullet that’s understandable. But just because the logic is there doesn’t mean it’s not sweet to go against it. Eovaldi pitched every bit like a playoff ace in this game in a way that Cole did not. Most of the coverage there is going to be focused on Cole not pitching like it, but to me the story is that Eovaldi did. I’m going to have more on him later so I won’t say too much now, but he’s cementing himself as a Boston legend.
And speaking just more on the technical side, it was fantastic to see him have his secondaries again. He was shelled by the Yankees last month while working virtually just with a fastball and cutter in that game. Here, he did lean heavy on the fastball but he had a few really good splitters and his curveball was awesome. When he has everything working and the hitter truly is left guessing at all times, he’s hard to beat.
Thinking about the biggest moments of the game, it’s hard for me to pick anything besides the relay to get Aaron Judge at the plate. When the play first went down, I thought it was just a terrible send. And upon replay it’s still not a great send, but mostly it was a perfect relay, and specifically a perfect throw home from Xander Bogaerts. If Judge scores — and he would on a bit more inaccurate of a throw — it’s a one-run game with a runner in scoring position, just one out, and all the momentum with New York. Who knows where things go from there, but in the moment it was hard to see it going positively. For a team with major defensive issues, they came up with a huge play exactly when they needed it.
I said above that Eovaldi was the biggest story of the game, but Bogaerts was the MVP of the day. He had two big moments in this game with the homer and the relay, and he also worked a couple of big walks late that ultimately helped them pull away a bit and get some breathing room. Especially with J.D. Martinez out for this one, and maybe even the next series, Bogaerts needs to hit after slumping late in the year. This was a great sign.


Given how often I write something and then the opposite immediately happens, I have to gloat a bit about the Verdugo clutch thing. Above I talked about Bogaerts walking to help add on late runs, and it was Verdugo driving him in. In the sixth, he got a run right back with an RBI double, and then in the seventh he brought two home to extend the lead to five with a base hit. He did end that base hit with a terrible baserunning out, but you take the good with the bad I suppose.
I was pleasantly surprised to see Kyle Schwarber leading off, and I hope this continues against righties. Kiké Hernández ended up being better in that role than I expected, but Schwarber’s ability to work a pitcher makes him such a fit at that spot.
Alex Cora’s got some kind of magical ability with relievers in the postseason, it seems. He makes some really wacky choices, even going back to Sunday with Martín Pérez pitching an important inning and getting the job done. On Tuesday, I was okay with pulling Eovaldi, but I was not wild about bringing in Ryan Brasier. But it worked, even if it was largely due to the relay mentioned above. I was not a fan of pulling Tanner Houck for Hansel Robles (though the concern waned when Verdugo added those two runs), but he was perfect. It’s kind of cheap for me to call it a magical ability, because it’s clear Cora knows his staff and, even when it doesn’t make sense, has a tendency in these games to find the optimum spot.
This was the first time the Red Sox played in a Wildcard Game, and I still liked it. I know it’s the minority position, and I agree some things can be tweaked to avoid things like the Dodgers being in it, but I think it’s exciting, and I’m okay with it being a little unfair in the spirit of entertainment. That said, I always figured I’d really know how I felt after the Red Sox played in one. Maybe it’ll be different if they don’t win next time.
And finally, it was really great to see Jerry Remy out there for the first pitch, and throwing to Eck was a nice addition.