BOSTON – Back in 1986, the Mets has the motto “Baseball Like It Oughta Be.”
Apparently during that seven game World Series, the Red Sox took that motto to heart and 32 years later, they are employing it.
In this analytical game, the Red Sox are something of a throwback. Instead of worrying about launch angles and taking the big swing, they look at stringing the hits together and taking the extra base.
And it was on full display in the World Series and Game 1’s, 8-4 Red Sox win showcased the Boston way of playing baseball.
“We’ve done a great job with that, it seems like from the beginning of the year,” said leftfielder Andrew Benintendi, who was in the middle of the action tonight with four hits, scored three runs and had an RBI. “Guys tend to step up to the challenge and they are not afraid to fail. Put good at-bats together and good things tend to happen.”
Love them or hate them, the Red Sox know how to manufacture runs. And since this is such a copycat league, the good news for baseball is that you will start seeing other teams copying the Red Sox style.
For the past decade or so, baseball has been too reliant on the home run. There are too many one- dimensional players in the league, who shoot for all or nothing. The Yankees have embraced that philosophy and proceeded to get crushed by the Sox in the first round.
Remember, it’s easy to hit home runs during the regular season, but in the playoffs, the pitching becomes a premium and the big swings need to become a little shorter. Get on base, sacrifice yourself to move runners over and manufacture runs.
“Some good at-bats,” said manager Alex Cora. “A-lot of good at-bats together. From the first at-bat, we put pressure on them. And that’s what we do.”
That’s the Red Sox way.
And sure, it helps when Edwardo Nunez puts one over the Monster to put the game out of reach.
Now before we get ahead of ourselves and have a parade down Boylston Street, this just was one game. The Red Sox held serve and need to win tomorrow to continue to hold. The Dodgers didn’t put their best foot forward today and Clayton Kershaw was very hittable.
Tomorrow might be a very different story at Fenway with David Price on the mound.
But Cora’s team will still keep the pressure going, because this is what the Sox do. The Yankees learned it and the Astros had fits.
Now the Dodgers.
The copycats in baseball will most certainly be emulating it and that is a very good thing for the game.
Get back to small ball and start learning how to manufacture runs. If that happens, then maybe the term “launch angle” will only apply to the new NASA system going to Mars.
And we will be going back to a better brand of baseball.
Everyone wins with this. Starting with the Red Sox tonight.
Now let’s see them do it three more times.
“Baseball Like It Oughta Be!”