Visits: 6
LOS ANGELES — Steve Pearce joined the party in progress. The Boston Red Sox added him in a trade in June, a month before the nonwaiver trading deadline, just in time to face a Yankees left-hander in the Bronx. Pearce doubled in his first at-bat.
He had always been curious about life as a member of the Red Sox. He was born and raised in Lakeland, Fla., but he rooted for the Boston sports teams because his family had roots in New England.
“I was brainwashed as a kid,” he said.
On Sunday at Dodger Stadium, in Game 5 of the World Series, Pearce helped his adopted fan base add another jewel to its crown. He started and ended the scoring with home runs, leading the Red Sox to a 5-1 victory and their fourth championship in 15 seasons.
[Read an inning-by-inning recap of Game 5 of the 2018 World Series.]
“This has been a lifelong journey, and to be here right now is a dream come true,” said Pearce, who hit .333 with three homers and drove in eight runs to win most valuable player in the series. “Best feeling in my life.”
He connected for a two-run shot off Clayton Kershaw in the first inning Sunday, and homered again off Pedro Baez with the bases empty in the eighth. David Price, Joe Kelly and Chris Sale throttled the Dodgers, with Sale striking out Manny Machado on a slider to end it. The players mobbed Sale in front of the mound, and Pearce, the first baseman, flung his glove to the sky.
In finishing the World Series here, the Red Sox shook off any effects of the most memorable game of this series: the record 18-inning marathon in Game 3. They even had the perspective to recognize history as it happened, even in defeat.
When the Dodgers beat them early Saturday morning on homer by Max Muncy — in the 440th minute of the game — the Red Sox were not discouraged. They were excited.
“We talked about how crazy of a game it was, and how fun — that was nuts,” the slugger J. D. Martinez said a day later. “I mean, that was an 18-inning World Series game. You never see that; it was the longest game ever! That was pretty sick. Yeah, we lost, but if you’re a baseball fan and you love the game, that’s something you want.”
Just as the 1975 Cincinnati Reds recovered from Carlton Fisk’s famous Game 6 homer to win Game 7 in Boston, the 2018 Red Sox shook off Muncy’s blast and won the next night. Their 9-6 comeback win in Game 4 was another validation of their franchise-best 108 victories in the regular season.
“You don’t win 108 games in that division, that league, in this day and age unless you’re a pretty good club,” Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts said.
Martinez was mostly quiet through the first four games of the World Series. So was Mookie Betts, Boston’s other top candidate for the American League Most Valuable Player Award. Both were hitting below .215, just as the Dodgers had hoped.
“When you’re game-planning against a particular team, there’s the superstars that you don’t want to let beat you,” Roberts said. “We put Mookie on, we put J. D. on.”
The Dodgers used intentional walks to avoid Betts and Martinez in the ninth inning of Game 4. But they could not stop the Red Sox from scoring five runs in the inning, turning a tie game into another emphatic display of a deep and merciless lineup. And Betts and Martinez homered off Kershaw in Sunday’s clincher.
The Red Sox took command of this World Series despite getting only four ordinary innings in Game 1 from their ace, Sale, who made more of an impact with a profane dugout rant in Game 4 than he did while pitching in the opener.
Yet Manager Alex Cora has helped the Red Sox with a World Series full of inspired moves. Two pinch-hitters — Eduardo Nunez in Game 1 and Mitch Moreland in Game 4 — have delivered three-run homers. Another, Rafael Devers, singled home the go-ahead run in Game 4 after Pearce, a role player who hit .333 in the Series, had tied it with a homer.
Pearce was one of three pivotal midseason trade acquisitions by Dave Dombrowski, the president of baseball operations. He also added starter Nathan Eovaldi, who has dazzled in relief in this World Series, and second baseman Ian Kinsler.
“One of my favorite things I’ve seen since I’ve been here is the team chemistry on and off the field,” said Pearce, who has played for all five teams in the A.L. East. “And when I came in, they were having fun and laughing, everyone was together and talking baseball. And then you notice on the field when you’re playing against them for so long, they’re always having fun. It’s very contagious, and it’s just a great atmosphere.”
Cora has helped cultivate that environment in his first season as manager. He is the third Red Sox manager in the last four to win a World Series in his Boston debut. Terry Francona did it in 2004 (adding another title in 2007), and John Farrell did it in 2013, after the team’s awkward one-year interlude with Bobby Valentine.
While Roberts was burned by his reliance on the veteran reliever Ryan Madson, who allowed all seven of his inherited runners to score in Games 1, 2 and 4, Cora has mostly made shrewd bullpen moves. When he left in starter Eduardo Rodriguez to serve up a three-run homer to Yasiel Puig on Saturday night, Cora acknowledged his mistake.
“I pushed him too hard,” Cora said, adding later, “I was actually kicking myself for a few innings before the comeback.”
Cora played for the Red Sox championship team in 2007, when he was a reserve infielder. That was the only Boston team in a stretch of 17 seasons from 1996 to 2012 that won the A.L. East. Those Red Sox dominated with a pitching staff that had the best earned run average in the A.L. and an offense that led the majors in walks. The lineup revolved around David Ortiz and Manny Ramirez but had firepower throughout.
“It’s the same way here — we’ve got Mookie and J. D., but the at-bats around them, they’re great,” Cora said. “It’s a relentless group. We’re not as patient as that group, but we grind at-bats and we foul pitches. Obviously we drive the ball out of the ballpark, but we can do other stuff, too.”
Both teams had speed, Cora said, and a strong rotation, stingy bullpen and power hitters off the bench.
“And both managers, they’re bald,” he added.
Cora had reason to smile. He won a World Series ring at Dodger Stadium last fall as the bench coach for the Houston Astros. Now he has done it again, with a resilient roster that seems to cherish its place in history.