Red Sox History: The unsung hero from every pennant-winning team

The biggest unsung hero of every Red Sox pennant-winning season

Any Red Sox fan can quickly rattle off the list of Red Sox postseason legends. David Ortiz. Jon Lester. Curt Schilling. Dave Henderson. Luis Tiant. In a sports-crazy city like Boston, those players are celebrated forever. Yet for every superstar who has come through on the biggest stage, there is a player who made key contributions that have been overlooked.

While it’s the stars and big personalities that will always get remembered the most we can’t forget those players that carried their weight outside of the spotlight. You can’t build a team on just big names and must have those guys that put in the work when the lights aren’t shining.

So today I want to shine some light on those players that played their part in delivering banners to Fenway Park. Without these players, history may have been very different for the Red Sox. Let’s look back at the biggest unsung hero from every Red Sox pennant winner in the last century.

1946: 1B Rudy York

Unlike many players on this list, Rudy York was an established player before the 1946 pennant-winning season. From 1937-1945, York averaged 27 home runs and 104 RBIs a season, helping the Tigers win the 1945 World Series in the process. Seeking to provide some lineup protection for legend Ted Williams, the Red Sox traded for York prior to the 1946 campaign.

The move paid immediate dividends. York’s power production may have slipped, as his 17 home runs were the lowest total since, but his 119 RBI ranked fourth in the majors while his total bases and on-base percentage ranked tenth. Future Hall of Famers Bobby Doerr and Williams may have garnered most of the attention, but it was York who came up with the clutch hit time and time again.

York’s great hitting only continued into the World Series. His go-ahead, 10th inning home run in Game One gave the Red Sox an early series lead, while his three-run home run led the Red Sox to a 4-0 victory in Game Three.

In all, the Red Sox slugger totaled four extra-base hits and posted a 1.086 OPS in the series and would have been a legend in Boston if the Red Sox had pulled out a win in Game 7.

York would end up playing just a year and a half in Boston and would be out of baseball by 1948. The abrupt end to his career, however, doesn’t diminish his accomplishments in 1946, as his contributions made all the difference in that pennant-winning season.

1967: SP Lee Strange

The 1967 Red Sox was defined by the success of two players. On offense, it was all about Carl Yastrzemski, as his Triple Crown season and torrid September carried the Red Sox to the AL pennant. On the mound, it was Jim Lonborg’s Cy Young season that anchored the pitching staff. The problem with having two players having legendary seasons, however, is that it overshadows the contributions of the rest of the team.

One of the players whose achievements got lost was Lee Strange. If you ask the average Red Sox fan today about Strange, they probably wouldn’t know who he was. Yet after Lonborg, Strange was arguably the most valuable pitcher on the team.

A journeyman for the first six years of his career, Strange’s first two months with the Red Sox were more of the same. Pitching sparingly out of the bullpen, he had a mediocre 4.67 ERA through May.

The Red Sox, toiling along at 22-20, made the bold move to put Strange in the rotation at the beginning of June, and he took off. From June 4 on, Strange pitched to a 2.57 ERA over 24 starts, providing much-needed stability behind ace Lonborg and helping the Red Sox storm back in the pennant race.

Strange failed to have much of an impact in the World Series, pitching just two innings of relief in the Red Sox’s seven-game loss to the Cardinals. Still, with the Red Sox clinching the pennant on the last day of the season, there is no question that this storybook season would not have happened without Strange.

1975: Denny Doyle

The 1975 Red Sox offense was a machine. Led by superstar rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, they led the AL in both average (.275) and runs (796). If the lineup had one weakness, however, it was at second base. Doug Griffin began the year at the keystone position, but his anemic offensive performance (.550 OPS) opened the door for Denny Doyle.

There was not much fanfare when Doyle was acquired from the Angels in April of that year. After all, he was just a career .245 hitter and had hit only ten home runs in his first five seasons in the big leagues. His first two months with the Red Sox were more of the same, as he was hitting just .159 through July 1.

That’s when Doyle took off, batting an incredible .338 for the rest of the season, including a 22-game hit streak. His value to the team was undeniable: The Red Sox went 55-29 when Doyle started and just 40-36 when he didn’t.

Unfortunately, Doyle’s postseason performance is most remembered for his baserunning gaffe in Game 6. With the score tied at 6 in the bottom of the ninth, Doyle stood on third base with only one out. Fred Lynn lifted a short fly ball into left field, seemingly too shallow to score Doyle. Doyle, confusing third base coach Don Zimmer’s “No, no, no!” with “Go, go, go!”, tried to score anyway and was thrown out easily to kill the Red Sox rally.

Doyle, however, is far from the reason the Red Sox lost the series. For one, the Red Sox would go on to win Game 6 on Carlton Fisk’s walk-off home run. And while the series featured many stars, including 5 Hall of Famers and Pete Rose, Doyle was the only one to collect a hit each game. From the moment Doyle arrived in Boston, he was a hitting machine and deserves better than being remembered for one mistake on the bases.

1986: SP Bruce Hurst

The 1986 Red Sox season was defined by the breakout of ace Roger Clemens. The former first-round pick had high expectations when he arrived in Boston in 1984, but two straight underwhelming, injury-plagued seasons had people questioning whether he was worthy of the hype. Clemens silenced all the doubters in 1986, taking home both the MVP and Cy Young awards with one of the best pitching seasons of all time (24-4, 2.48 ERA, 238 strikeouts).

Clemens may have had a regular season for the ages, but come the postseason, he took a backseat to lefthander Bruce Hurst. Hurst had spent the previous three seasons as a mid-rotation innings eater (4.18 ERA, 220 innings), but he took a major step forward in the 1986 season. Though he was limited to 25 starts due to injury, he posted a career-low 2.99 ERA and proved himself a worthy second option to Clemens.

Hurst kicked the postseason off by dominating the California Angels. He allowed just 4 earned runs over two starts; both Red Sox wins. He got the ball in Game One of the World Series and absolutely shoved, shutting out the high-powered Mets over eight innings in a 1-0 victory. Hurst was called on again in Game 5, this time to stop the bleeding after the Mets had won two straight to even the series. Once again, Hurst delivered, allowing just two runs over nine terrific innings.

Even though his Game 7 start (6 innings, three runs) wasn’t quite as sharp, Hurst would have undoubtedly been the World Series MVP if the Red Sox hadn’t choked the championship away. Instead, Hurst is remembered as a solid if unspectacular innings-eater rather than a World Series hero.

2004: SS Orlando Cabrera

Few teams in franchise history entered the season with more expectations than the 2004 Red Sox. After winning 95 games and coming five outs away from the World Series the year prior, the Red Sox added ace starting pitcher Curt Schilling and All-Star closer Keith Foulke. It looked like it would finally be the Red Sox year, but after a 15-6 start, the Red Sox went just 43-43 over their next 86 games. Something needed to change.

The biggest problem with that Red Sox team was their infield defense. They had below-average defenders at each of the four positions, which hurt the team’s pitchers, especially groundball specialist Derek Lowe (5.52 ERA).

To upgrade the team’s defense, general manager Theo Epstein made the bold move of trading franchise cornerstone Nomar Garciaparra in a four-team deal that brought in, among other players, defensive specialist Orlando Cabrera.

The deal paid immediate dividends. Not only did Cabrera play fantastic defense, but he batted .294 with 31 RBIs in just 58 games. The Red Sox went on a 20-2 run in August and grabbed the wild card spot with 98 wins.

Cabrera continued his immense contributions in October. He played error-free defense over the team’s fourteen games and became one of twenty players ever with a ten-game hitting streak. 2004 would be Cabrera’s only year with the Red Sox, but his performance in just half a season would make him a legend in Boston.

2007: Jacoby Ellsbury

Jacoby Ellsbury’s career in Boston was anything but under-the-radar. The centerfielder led the MLB in stolen bases three times, including a franchise-record 70 in 2009. The highlight of his career was his incredible 2011 season, where he hit .321 with 32 home runs and finished runner-up in the MVP voting to Justin Verlander.

Before Ellsbury was a bonafide superstar, however, he was a little-known rookie on the 2007 World Series championship team. Ellsbury was called up in June when starting center fielder Coco Crisp was placed on the DL, going 6-16 in a short, five-game cup of coffee.

He got a more extended look when rosters expanded in September and batted .361 with eight stolen bases. With the Red Sox winning the division by just two games, Ellsbury’s contributions were a key reason they were able to hold off the Yankees.

Despite his great September, Ellsbury was back on the bench when the playoffs started. Yet when Crisp batted just .161 and the Red Sox fell behind 3-2 to the Indians, manager Terry Francona put Ellsbury in the starting lineup. The rookie scored three runs in the final two games, and the Red Sox stormed past the Indians to another World Series.

Ellsbury was even better in the World Series against the Rockies. Inserted into the leadoff spot when the series moved to Colorado, Ellsbury collected four hits in a 10-5 victory in Game 3, becoming just the third rookie ever to accomplish that feat in a World Series. He got two more hits in a Game 4 victory, and the Red Sox closed out the Rockies in 4.

2013: Junichi Tazawa

Arguably the most famous star of the 2013 Red Sox was Koji Uehara. After taking over the closer’s role in June, Uehara allowed just two runs in his last 44 innings and converted all seven save opportunities during their postseason run. Yet as great as Uehara was, his performance would have gone for naught if it wasn’t for the heroics of Junichi Tazawa.

Tazawa had established himself as a trusted reliever the year prior when he had a 1.43 ERA over 44.0 innings. This came after disappointing 2010 and 2011 seasons that were derailed by Tommy John surgery. In 2013, he proved he was more than a feel-good story, posting a 3.16 ERA and striking out over a batter an inning.

Tazawa’s performance in October, however, is what will make him remembered forever in Boston. He allowed just one run over 7.1 superb innings, the perfect set-up man in front of Uehara.

His signature moment came in Game 3 of the ALCS against the Tigers. The game was a classic pitcher’s duel between Justin Verlander and John Lackey. Neither team had scored going into the seventh inning before Mike Napoli launched a fly ball into deep left field.

The Tigers threatened to strike right back in the eighth inning, putting runners on the corners with one out. Up came two-time defending MVP Miguel Cabrera, and in came Tazawa.

Tazawa absolutely schooled Cabrera, blowing three fastballs by the reigning Triple Crown winner and striking him out on four pitches. Tazawa gave way to Uehara, who struck out Prince Fielder to escape the jam. Tazawa would pitch three more years in Boston, yet his strikeout of Cabrera was undoubtedly his greatest achievement.