Wednesday’s win wasn’t pretty. The Red Sox had to scratch and claw for every inch to pull out an extra-innings walk-off against a team that ranks among the worst in baseball.
But for Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Wednesday was the kind of night a team shows what it’s really made of.
“A lot of guys grew up today,” Cora said. “That’s where we’re at too, it’s not like we have a bunch of veterans that know what happens in October.”
Once a virtual lock to make the postseason, the Red Sox have seen their cushion grow uncomfortably small in recent days. The club entered Wednesday only 2.5 ahead of the red hot Cleveland Guardians for the last American League Wild Card spot, and another loss to the Athletics could have dealt the team a massive blow.
From here on out every win is crucial, and Wednesday the young Red Sox passed a big test.
“There’s nothing that can kind of prepare you for playing in this type of environment this late in the season for what’s at stake,” said shortstop Trevor Story. “It’s all about your process and controlling yourself and not making the moment too big, and we did a good job of that today and tough to win coming from behind in this league and to be able to do it today with the situation was nice.”
The Red Sox have veterans like Story who know what it takes to play in October, but the difference-makers on Wednesday were guys who are learning on the fly.
Nick Sogard, who hit the game-winning fielder’s choice, has just 57 MLB games to his name. Nate Eaton, who scored the winning run from third after entering the game as a pinch runner in the 10th, has only played in 105, and neither player has ever sniffed a big league playoff race.
Same goes for rookie Carlos Narvaez, who moved the runners into scoring position in the 10th, and even more experienced players like Jarren Duran, who reached base safely four times on Wednesday but has never played meaningful baseball in September or beyond.
The day’s biggest winners arguably were relievers Zack Kelly and Chris Murphy, who combined to post a scoreless top of the 10th after the club’s established high-leverage arms had already taken their turns.
“This is my fourth season here and I think this is probably the best team win I’ve been a part of,” Kelly said. “Just the back and forth, the energy in the stadium, everybody got involved and all around I can’t think of a better team win the entire time I’ve been here.”
Try as they might to avoid it, it’s impossible not to look around and see how everyone else is doing once September starts heating up. The out of town scores are right in front of the Red Sox dugout on the Green Monster, and all throughout Wednesday’s comeback, Cleveland steadily built on its lead en route to a 4-0 win.
Cora said that dynamic sets September apart from October, even if the stakes in the playoffs are technically higher.
“A good friend of mine told me September is to suffer, because you still got teams around you and you win and you look and you suffer,” Cora said. “In October, it’s head to head. You’ve got control of whatever happens in that series. But in September everything gets magnified, it’s kind of like Opening Day again, ‘0 and 3, ohh they’re not going to make it.’ You have to enjoy it, we play this game and we’re blessed to be part of this.”
The Red Sox still have 10 games to play and can polish off a series win against the Athletics on Thursday. The road won’t get any easier from here, especially with back-to-back series against the first place Blue Jays and Tigers to finish the season, but Cora said nights like Wednesday will help prepare the club for what’s to come.
“Our plan is to play in the playoffs and we’ll take all the Ws we can regardless of if they’re pretty or ugly, it really doesn’t matter,” Cora said.