The 2018 Red Sox team was special. Alex Cora was in his first year as manager, bringing a young voice to the clubhouse. Cora really set a tone from spring training and it lasted throughout the entire season.
The Red Sox won a franchise-record 108 regular season games and rolled through the playoffs by beating the Yankees, Astros, and Dodgers.
The top moments in the series started in Game One when Eduardo Nunez came in to pinch-hit in the seventh inning and delivered a three-run home run.
In Game Two, it was J.D. Martinez‘s turn to shine. In the fifth inning he hit for an RBI single driving in two runs. David Price was also great in Game Two, allowing only two runs on three hits with five strikeouts.
Game Three was a long game in LA that lasted 18 innings. The Sox would lose the game 2-1 but this would be the only game the Dodgers would win during the series. Nathan Eovaldi became a World Series hero during this game, pitching seven innings of relief that night. Everyone was inspired after that performance and they used that as motivation throughout the rest of the series.
The standouts in Game Five were Price and the MVP of the series, Steve Pearce. Boston took an early lead with Pearce’s first-inning home run. Betts and Martinez added to the lead with solo shots in the fifth and seventh innings, followed by Pearce’s second home run of the game in the eighth. That would be plenty of offense with Price holding the Dodgers to one run over seven innings.
Cora handed the ball to Chris Sale to close out the series and he did so by striking out Manny Machado in the ninth.