The Dodgers Hung Around In Game 1 Of The World Series Until Eduardo Nunez Decided That Was Enough Of That

For the first time since 2013, the Boston Red Sox are back in the World Series and they opened this Fall Classic the same way that they ended the last one — with a convincing victory. After watching this team all year, I’m not sure why I’m so surprised that the postseason has unfolded the way that it has thus far. Perhaps I just fell into the mainstream media’s trap that would have us believe that there was “no chance” that the Red Sox could win a World Series with this bullpen.

The postseason is also where all the best pitching resides, so be prepared for some low-scoring games, right? After hanging a five-spot on Clayton Kershaw in Game 1 of the World Series, who many consider to be the best pitcher of this generation, the Red Sox are now averaging 6.4 runs per game in 10 postseason games this October. The teams that rank second and third in that category this postseason — the Astros and Yankees — were each dismissed in one game over the minimum by the Red Sox.

The Red Sox have played two fewer playoff games than the Dodgers, and they’ve still scored 17 more runs than them. And these haven’t just been garbage time, tack-on runs that didn’t matter, either. Of the 64 runs that the Red Sox have scored this October, 32 of them have come with two outs. The biggest swing of the night in Game 1 of the World Series was a three-run bomb off the bat of pinch hitter Eduardo Nunez that came with — you guessed it — two outs.

In all, half of the runs that the Red Sox scored against the Dodgers came with two outs. But Nunez’s three two-out RBI don’t end up on the board without Red Sox manager Alex Cora pushing all the right buttons, yet again. I was a little surprised to see Rafael Devers’ name in the lineup against the left-hander in Kershaw, but when the time came to pull the trigger on Nunez taking over at third base, Cora knew exactly when to strike. In the bottom of the seventh inning of a 5-4 ballgame, Dave Roberts called upon the lefty Alex Wood to face a left-handed batter in Devers. Cora swapped in Nunez, the righty bat, and that decision paid off almost instantly when the former All Star swatted a 1-0 knuckle curve over the Monster.

But before we could even get to that point, we first had to endure another start by Chris Sale under the circumstances that we simply had no idea what we were going to get. In the first half of the season, it was like pulling your favorite movie off the shelf, popping it in, kicking back and enjoying your viewing experience. Between the DL stints, the decreased velocity, the lingering injury, the hospitalization, the weight loss, and the weather, I had no clue what version of Sale we were going to see in Game 1 of this World Series. No clue.

For those who were on velocity watch, Sale’s fastball averaged 93.7 MPH and he hit a max velocity of 96.2 MPH. These are noticeable increases from his Game 1 start against the Astros in the ALCS. As you know, velocity isn’t everything and although the velocity was encouraging, the results were sort of similar. In his Game 1 start against Houston, Sale threw 86 pitches, 50 for strikes (58.1%). In his Game 1 start against the Dodgers, Sale threw 91 pitches, 54 for strikes (59.3%). Sale got to three-ball counts five times, two of which resulted in a walk.

Was he bad? No, he wasn’t bad. But was he sharp? I don’t think anybody would make that argument, either. Despite once again having trouble locating his four-seamer, two-seamer and his changeup, Sale bent but he never really broke. There was the homer that he allowed to Matt Kemp in the second inning that served as the biggest blow, but the left-hander exited the game after walking the first batter he faced in the fifth inning, still giving the Red Sox a chance to win this game.

Circling back to one of the earlier points, though — look at how far we’ve come with this Red Sox bullpen. Everyone looked at me like I had five fuckin’ heads when I tried to provide some words of encouragement going into the postseason. The fact of the matter is, the Red Sox bullpen was tied for eighth in the majors in bullpen ERA. Tied with who, you ask? Oh, just the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team that everyone was giving the edge to handedly when comparing bullpens. Sure, they weren’t all that dependable in the second half, but whose bullpen features five guys that you can give the ball to on any given night and it’s ballgame over? It’s a rarity if not a complete myth.

After Sale departed in the fifth with nobody out and a runner on, the Red Sox bullpen was asked to get 15 outs. If this had happened in August or maybe even September, I’m more than likely pulling a Captain Smith in Titanic, walking into the bridge, grabbing hold of the steering wheel, and watching as the water fills up to the top of the windows before it all comes crashing through the glass to create my watery tomb. I don’t get that feeling anymore. I feel like you don’t, either. It may have taken nine months, but I think we’ve finally built a trustworthy relationship with this Red Sox bullpen. Decent timing, I’d say. Feels really good, too.

This postseason, Rick Porcello, Chris Sale, Nathan Eovaldi, Heath Hembree, Ryan Brasier, Matt Barnes and Joe Kelly — seven pitchers — have combined for 30 innings of relief and have a 0.90 ERA, a 0.93 WHIP, and 23 strikeouts. Barnes, Kelly, Brasier and Eovaldi were all used to build a bridge to Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning, who looked like his old self again, blowing 98 MPH smoke past the Dodgers’ bats when Boston’s closer faced the minimum in the final inning of the game.

Andrew Benintendi had four hits in this one, three of them off of Kershaw, becoming the only player this year to have three hits off of the three-time Cy Young award winner. He had some bonehead plays thrown in there — not running out of the box on a ball that dropped in and would’ve been a double and not throwing home on a base hit into left field that brought a run in from second base — but I’ve already forgiven him. By, like, the third hit. The fourth one was just some icing on the cake.

JD Martinez drove in a run on two separate occasions, but rolled the fuck out of his ankle on an RBI double in the bottom of the third. He stayed in the game and told reporters today that the ankle “feels good”, but I’d imagine that’s probably not true. He’s gonna tough it out though because A.) he’s a badass and B.) it’s the World Series. Gonna take more than that to keep the man who crushed 43 homers and drove in 130 runs out of the lineup in his first crack at a World Series title.

In Game 2 of the World Series, we will see conquering hero David Price versus Hyun-Jin Ryu. Price, as you know, was the winning pitcher for the first time in his career as a starter in the clinching game against the Astros in the ALCS. The lefty turned in six shutout innings with a career high nine postseason strikeouts. Ryu is kind of progressing backwards for the Dodgers this postseason. His first start was an absolute gem, seven shutout innings against the Braves in the NLDS. But then he gave up a couple runs in four and a third in Game 2 of the ALCS, which wasn’t bad. And then in his most recent start, the left-hander got tagged for five earned runs in three innings in Game against the Brewers.

I don’t want to say this is a “big” start for Price, but this is kind of a big start for Price. If he can go out there and come anything close to the performance that he turned in his last time out, there are going to be a LOT of people out there who will look like complete assholes. Like, tremendous assholes. Clear eyes. David Price. Can’t lose.

Final score: Red Sox 8, Dodgers 4 — BOS leads World Series 1-0