2021 Boston Red Sox Season In Review

(photo cred: @RedSox/Twitter)

Well, last Friday was the official end to the 2021 Boston Red Sox season. It was an absolute roller-coaster of a season, but definitely one to remember. Let's review!

To begin the story of the 2021 season we must go all the way back to November 2020. It all started with the re-hiring of Manager, Alex Cora. After a disastrous season of 2020, the Sox got their guy back to lead the charge.

(Photo cred: @section10podcast/IG)

Additionally, Chief Baseball Officer, Chaim Bloom, had some big decisions to make to improve the team. This unfortunately meant that it was time to gut the core from the previous championship team by trading Andrew Benintendi and not re-signing Jackie Bradley Jr. It was time for some newcomers to take their places as the organization needed some fresh faces at lower costs in order to stay under the luxury tax threshold. Even though the Sox lost their core, they brought in a couple key players such as Kike Hernandez, who had just won the World Series with the Dodgers in 2020, as well as Hunter Renfroe, who was another veteran outfielder with a lot of pop in his bat and an underrated outfield arm. Having signed both, Boston was off to a good start as the two were also known to be good clubhouse leaders.

Once Spring Training rolled around and rosters were set, it came time for the preseason predictions. As the Red Sox are in the AL East Division, there was heavy competition surrounding them. Since Boston finished dead last in 2020, they were only expected to finish one spot ahead of that (4th in AL East) in 2021. Because this was set to be a rebuilding year, many media outlets and fans around Boston approached this season with low expectations but remained optimistic, hoping for the best.

After Spring Training finished, it was go-time! Opening Day was finally here! The Red Sox began their season with a three-game series against the Baltimore Orioles who are usually in the basement of the league every year. Unfortunately, the Sox were swept by the O’s right out the gate. Not a good start whatsoever. People of Boston were already irritated with the team’s play. After that series, the team noticed that they had to regroup and suddenly something sparked. Boston then went on to win their next nine straight and were at the top of the MLB. The Sox noticed they could make a serious run. Just like that the team expectations jumped all the way up to World Series or bust.

With the re-emergence of guys like Alex Verdugo, JD Martinez, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts, the lineup looked unstoppable.

Side note- TUNNEL TIME WAS BACK!! Despite the disastrous 2020 season, one positive thing that came out of it was the celebration that the Red Sox created. After every home run, the Red Sox form a parade in the dugout where the player who just hit a home run would ride a laundry cart while high fiving their teammates. A great tradition that carried on into the 2021 season!

Eventually Boston would go on to average 17 wins and 10 losses per month throughout April and May. They had caught fire! It was a bonus that guys at the bottom of the lineup were starting to come through in the clutch as well, proving that the BoSox could convert no matter who was up to bat. Their hot streak would continue throughout the month of June, as everything was clicking.

Fast forward to the All-Star break in mid-July, the Red Sox were still in first place in the division. It was also time for the MLB Draft. Due to tanking in the fake season of 2020, as part of the rebuild process, Boston had the fourth overall pick. What ended up happening, however, was that Chaim Bloom and company lucked out as they ended up selecting the best player overall (Marcelo Mayer/SS/Chula Vista, CA) as the three teams picking ahead of them selected players based on their needs instead of going for top draft pick.

Once the All-Star break ended, however, the Sox had started to slump for the first time all season. It was time to make some minor adjustments. As the trade deadline approached in late July, Bloom went out and got the hottest bat in the league in Kyle Schwarber (aka Kyle from Waltham) and improved the bullpen with a couple of new arms as well.

If you made it this far, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve barely talked about BoSox pitching. That’s because it wasn’t really much of a story this season. An on-going story throughout this season was that the offense had to keep bailing out the pitching staff as the starters were incredibly inconsistent by barely going deep into games and the bullpen got worn out after so long having to step in multiple times. That was the case through the month of August. Along with that, the bats started to quiet down, and the Red Sox had a significant drop. Suddenly, they went from first place to third place, looking like they could miss the playoffs altogether. Frightening times for sure.

To make matters worse, by the end of August/early September, the Sox had a massive COVID outbreak. About 11 of 26 players and coaches on their roster went down with the virus and had to miss about 7-10 days each as the final month of the season was approaching. During that span they still managed to play .500 ball which kept them in the hunt as those players would soon return. Once everyone was healthy again, the team made some tweaks to their game plan and started to look like the Red Sox of the first half of the season. They finished the last month of September going 17-10 once again and made it to the Wild Card game. Boston continued their dominance by defeating their biggest rival, the New York Yankees, and top-ranked pitcher Gerrit Cole by the score of 6-2. Surprisingly that man is getting paid $324M only to provide the Yankees with a first-round exit. Must be tough not using that Spider-Tack, huh, Gerrit?!

The Sox then moved on to play the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rays finished the regular season as the best team in the American League. Tampa was going to be a tough test, however the Sox continued their resiliency and came back to win the series in four games! They were starting to look like the team of destiny! For more on that series, check out my other blog here: https://natebarge14.wixsite.com/my-site/post/american-league-division-series-recap-boston-red-sox-vs-tampa-bay-rays

The Red Sox then went on to face the Houston Astros in the American League Championship Series. Game one was a well-fought game but went in favor of the Astros. Game two, however, Boston was hungry for revenge. Right out of the gate, JD and Devers hit two grand slams. TWO GRAND SLAMS!! Something that had not been done before in the postseason. Sox evened the series heading back to Boston. Game three then came around and you guessed it, Kyle Schwarber got the BoSox going with another grand slam, and they wouldn’t look back. Sox led two games to one. Up until this point the adrenaline rush was at an all-time high!

Moving on to games four and five, the second half Red Sox emerged, unfortunately. The Sox bullpen imploded on back-to-back nights, which sent the series back to Houston with the Astros ahead three games to two. As game six came around, facing elimination the Red Sox seemed to be wiped out. The Astros clinched the series four games to two.

That was it. The season was over. For the first time since March, I personally felt mentally and physically drained. It was a devastating loss to an absolute thrill of a season. Nonetheless, I was proud of the progress that was made as the Red Sox significantly exceeded expectations by finishing just two games away from a World Series appearance. Hopefully, Chaim Bloom will make some big splashes this offseason and improve the team even more. Exciting things are happening in Red Sox Nation. Cannot wait for 2022!!