As Game 1 of the AL Wild Card series got underway, there was plenty for Red Sox fans to be happy about.
After a start to the season full of weeping, mourning and gnashing of teeth, the Sox fired Alex Cora in April. Chad Tracy came in to take over as interim manager but there was still a lot to fix. In June, the team was 14 games under .500.
Then, in a U-turn that would make a U-Haul on Storrow jealous, the Red Sox pulled off something of a miracle. They ripped together 15 straight wins, tying the franchise record. At one point they had a 32-5 stretch. Later, they would become just the fourth team in the history of Major League Baseball to make the playoffs after going 14 games under .500.
Tracy would be given a well-earned promotion to proper manager just before the playoffs got underway. And before the first game against the Yankees got underway, he admitted that making it there seemed like a world away when he took over.
“It’s been a crazy journey, but here we are,” he said. “They accomplished it, we got here. Obviously, this is not our end goal. Any of the 12 teams remaining, this is not their goal — just to get here and be satisfied. But it was a wave of emotions for our season for our players, staff and everybody involved.”
All those emotions were only amplified by the stage set in the Bronx against their ancient foes. If they could win at least two against the Yankees on their home turf maybe there was no bottom to this team’s bag of tricks.
Then they got punched straight in the nose in a 9-0 loss in Game 1. The Sox could only scrape together three hits. Yankees Cam Schlittler struck out 10 batters en route to becoming the biggest Massachusetts traitor since maybe Benedict Arnold. And Roman Anthony left the game after tweaking an injury in his right hand area, an injury that would eventually rule him out for the rest of the Wild Card Series.
All of that hung over Fenway as Game 2 got underway. Bars like Cask ‘n Flagon and Bleacher Bar were busy, but not overrun. Sox jerseys crossed paths with Beatles shirts as Ringo Starr got ready to play down the street at MGM Music Hall.
James Harding had maintained hope through even the worst stretches of baseball the Sox had to offer this year. So, there was no need to change up the formula now.
“As a Boston fan of all the Boston sports team, no matter if they were in last place I’m like, ‘Hey, they’ve got a shot.’ So, I’m a through and through sports fan here,” Harding said. “So, I think they’re gonna win no matter what.”
Garrett Hall, another Sox fan, was still loyal but less enthusiastic. Especially with the team’s outing in the first game.
“Yeah, the record comeback was great and all. But, I mean it’s Boston,” Hall explained. “We expect playoff runs.”
Wednesday’s 9-2 loss marked the second year in a row that Boston was knocked out of the postseason by the Yankees. After a year of summer of fending off their season’s death, there would be no spell to stave off Boston’s winter slumber this time.
Tracy said everyone on the team was disappointed.
“I mean right now, regardless of all the special things that happened in the summer, and there was quite a few, the goal is to win the World Series, you know?” he said. “And that ended for us tonight, so it’s frustrating. You know, there’s a lot of things you can say, but in the moment right now I think the guys only care that we lost, you know? And it’s going to take some time to get over that.”
What was supposed to be the Sox final game at Fenway got moved to Florida on Sunday as a nor’easter sent Boston into soup mode over the weekend. As the Bronx was a hive of baseball Wednesday night, Lansdowne was more of an afterthought.
Now it will be a long offseason until the home opener. And fans will surely be expecting the team that showed up in July to be around more often.
But the thing about magic is that, usually, it has a short shelf life.
