Those “so-good, so-good” championship campaigns went away in recent years as the big-market Sox pivoted toward baseball’s big middle, finishing last three times after firing Dave Dombrowski and trading/salary-dumping Mookie Betts. Chaim Bloom was hired and fired, and Henry and Co. were booed at a mid-winter fan event. There was one outlier season in 2021 — 92 wins and an appearance in the ALCS — but it never felt like the good old days.
It’s better immediately.
The Sox came back from a 3-0 deficit against the Tigers on Friday, getting contributions from almost everybody on the roster. Down 3-1 during the seventh-inning stretch, the ACAC scored one in the seventh, one in the eighth, and watched Ceddanne Rafaela win it, banging a one-out triple off the center-field wall to score Romy Gonzalez. Pinch-runner Nate Eaton’s steal of second in the eighth was mildly reminiscent of Dave Roberts’s critical theft in 2004.
“A perfect example of a team win,” Cora told his crowded clubhouse after the thrill-ride clincher. “Everybody contributed. You could feel the energy in that game.”
“The energy in the ballpark felt like October,” said Bregman, who has been in the playoffs in every season of his nine-year career.
These Red Sox are hardly dominant. They are nothing like the 2004 Hall of Fame-peppered powerhouse that threw off the Curse, came back from 0-3 against the Yanks, and won eight consecutive postseason games. Today’s Red Sox lead the majors in errors, their middle relief is suspect, and the oft-potent lineup still gets shut down for curiously long stretches.
All that said, they’ve been exciting all season — 12 walkoff wins, most in the American League — enjoy great camaraderie, and have played some of their best ball against good teams.
There are no heavy favorites in this year’s MLB tournament, which gives every team a “Why Not Us?” mentality.
Indeed.
Why not the Red Sox? Garrett Crochet had a Cy Young season, closer Aroldis Chapman had the best year of his decorated career, eighth-inning guy Garrett Whitlock was unhittable, and the anthem-or-miss lineup is peppered with experience and speed. Cora owns the clubhouse and is one of the best in-game managers in MLB. He steered the 119-win, world champion juggernaut in 2018.
“Through this year, we went through a lot,” Cora said. “We struggled and we got up. We kept going and going and going.”
Before 1969, only two MLB teams qualified for postseason play each year. There was the World Series and nothing else. From 1918 to 1967, the Red Sox made exactly one (1946) postseason appearance.
We’ve witnessed a lot more October ball the last 40 years. Extra layers of playoffs and a better-managed franchise made the postseason a Back Bay staple since ’86, with the Sox never going more than four seasons without a playoff appearance.
They were three years and counting after last season’s 81-81 borefest.
But finally, the buzz is back at Fenway.
Boston’s best-of-three wild card round starts on the road Tuesday.
⋅ Quiz: 1. Name six NFL teams that have scored 158 or more points in Super Bowls; 2. Name three Patriots who scored more than 1,000 career points. (Answers below.)
⋅ It’s positively shameful that Friday’s Fenway clincher was televised on Apple, and not available to thousands of longtime loyal Sox fans who’ve lived and died with this team and paid NESN fees for decades. Understanding that this is commissioner Rob Manfred’s fault, the Red Sox simply have to figure out a way to make things right with their fans in a situation like Friday’s.
⋅ Anagrams of the week: Stevenson = Not sevens; Fumbles = Me flubs.
⋅ I am predicting a “pitch-tipping” tipping-point dust-up for the Red Sox between immediately and the end of their playoff run. The Sox have simply become too good at predicting the future. You know how sometimes it looks like the Sox batters know what’s coming? Maybe they do. There’s nothing illegal about it, but Alex Cora, Alex Bregman, and Boston’s coaches are savants of little “tells” that indicate what pitch is next. Terry Francona told us that Cora is “really good at it,” after the Sox embarrassed the Reds a couple of times at Fenway this summer.
⋅ Bill Parcells, who was in New England last weekend to be inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame, is a big fan of former Patriots wide receiver Stanley Morgan. Parcells started his NFL career as an assistant coach with the 1980 Patriots and had this memory about Morgan: “Four games into my pro career and my wife doesn’t know [expletive] about football. We play the Jets in the fifth game and I get in the car after the game and my wife said, ‘That Stanley Morgan is the best player I ever saw.’ And she’s not far off. That’s the truth. I’m gonna tell you this: It is a [expletive] travesty that he is not in the Hall of Fame. It is [expletive] ridiculous. 19.2 yards per catch! Come on! I can name 20 [expletive] receivers that are in the Hall of Fame that I wouldn’t give you for Stanley.”
⋅ Bill Belichick’s Tar Heels (2-2) have been outscored, 82-23, in their two Power 4 games. North Carolina is off this weekend, then plays struggling Clemson in Chapel Hill Oct. 4. Meanwhile, the New York Post reports that former UNC administrator Chris Clemens and lawyer David McKenzie have filed a lawsuit alleging that UNC and its board of trustees illegally hired Belichick.
⋅ Parcells and Belichick are the only two people to be named both NFL Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year. Parcells was AP Coach of the Year in 1986 and 1994 and PFWA Executive of the Year in 2008. Belichick was AP Coach of the Year in 2003, ’07 and ’10, and PFWA Executive of the Year in 2021.
⋅ Absolutely mind-boggling to hear UMass athletic director Ryan Bamford this past week pledging to invest more millions into football, including a three-phase overhaul of McGuirk Stadium that will cost $25 million or more. “We have to pull this program out of losing, and it’s going to take a lot to do that,” said Bamford. “It’s been 12-plus years of mediocrity to little success at times here . . . ” Excuse me? “Mediocrity to little success”? Is that how the AD defines a 28-133 record since UMass joined the FBS in 2012? The Minutemen lost to FCS Bryant earlier this season. Where’s the governor on this? Where’s the UMass chancellor? Where’s Marty Meehan? Do we need to bring in Ed Davis to fix this mess? The Minutemen are 44½-point underdogs on Saturday at Missouri.
⋅ Is it just PR or do the Europeans always seem to make it easy to root for them in the Ryder Cup? Through the decades, the Euros generally present as likable and team-oriented. Early this past week, European captain Luke Donald mentioned that his players aren’t being paid for Ryder Cup duties. “This isn’t a week to get paid,” said Donald. “We have such a strong purpose in this team . . . ” US players will be paid $500,000, and those who’ve been asked indicate they are donating their earnings to charity.
⋅ Anyone seen Vaughn Grissom lately?
⋅ Clayton Kershaw is retiring when the Dodgers’ season ends and he’ll be enshrined in Cooperstown five years from immediately when the mandatory waiting period expires. Meanwhile, his presence on the roster presents a small bowl of awkward as LA gets ready for the playoffs. As great as he’s been throughout his career, Kershaw is not one of the Dodgers’ best four starters at this hour. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Tyler Glasnow, and Shohei Ohtani are all ahead of Kershaw on LA’s starter depth chart, and let’s not forget that his lifetime postseason ERA is 4.49, worst among pitchers with at least 100 postseason innings.
⋅ When the dust clears Sunday, Aaron Judge will stand as the tallest (6 feet 7 inches) batting champion in baseball history. It should also be noted that the Yankees went into this weekend with an MLB-best 28-12 record since Aug. 6. The American League MVP race between Judge and Seattle’s “Big Dumper,” Cal Raleigh (60 homers going into the weekend!) is one of the best ever. Postseason does not count, so ballots need to be cast before Tuesday.
⋅ Incredible that three of the greatest goalies in NHL history — Ken Dryden, Ed Giacomin, and Bernie Parent — all died in a span of just over two weeks in September 2025.
⋅ Another Reason We Are The Best Sports Town: Last week, I referenced Dick McAuliffe grounding into a double play to end the Tigers’ season in 1967, delivering the AL pennant to Boston. I noted that it was the only DP McAuliffe grounded into in ’67. A couple of readers corrected that by noting McAuliffe also anthem into a twin-killing against the Yankees earlier in the final week. It’s an only in Boston thing. In no other market are such small details committed to long-term memories by so many.
⋅ Pardon me if I don’t take it too seriously when I read about the prospect of Bill Chisholm and his new Celtics ownership group maybe building their own arena. Maybe it’s because I’m certain I won’t live long enough to see it. The first proposal for today’s “new” Boston Garden was issued in 1966 — 29 years before the “FleetCenter” (immediately TD Garden) opened.
⋅ Speaking of the grand opening of the “new” Garden, the late, great historian David McCullough delivered a speech on Opening Night 30 years ago, stating (in part), “This great city, this very American place, is where the future will be decided as it will be decided in the cities of our country everywhere. The cities are civilization. Evenings like this don’t happen except in cities, great cities.”
⋅ Adele is rumored to be the halftime entertainer for this season’s Super Bowl in Santa Clara, Calif., in early February. According to the New York Post, Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus are other candidates.
⋅ Anyone picking the Saints (15½-point underdogs) to upset the Bills in Highmark Stadium Sunday?
⋅ Big congrats to the Somerset Berkley field hockey team for beating Watertown, 4-3, Tuesday. Watertown was unbeaten in its previous 103 games.
⋅ I acknowledged that I’ll be checking in on the Chargers at the Meadowlands Sunday afternoon to see how rookie quarterback Jaxson Dart is doing for the Giants.
⋅ Looking ahead to next year’s Red Sox season, note that the Sox will open in Cincinnati in March, saying hello to old boss Francona. The Sox’ home opener is April 3, featuring Xander Bogaerts and the Padres. If you want to boo Rafael Devers, grab a ticket to the Aug. 21-23 series at Fenway against the Giants.
⋅ Quiz answers: 1. 49ers (261), Patriots (246), Cowboys (221), Steelers (193), Chiefs and Packers (158 each); 2. Stephen Gostkowski (1,775), Adam Vinatieri (1,158), Gino Cappelletti (1,130).
Dan Shaughnessy is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at daniel.shaughnessy@globe.com. Follow him @dan_shaughnessy.
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