Kevin McNamara: Sox win Game 1, but we're in for a rocky ride

BOSTON – Leave it to Aaron Boone to come up with the perfect word for the atmosphere floating around Fenway Park as the sun set on a beautiful early fall afternoon Friday in the Back Bay.

"Buzzy," said the New York Yankees manager just hours before his team hooked up with the rival Red Sox in a series that everyone in baseball just knew was bound to happen in 2018.

BOSTON – Leave it to Aaron Boone to come up with the perfect word for the atmosphere floating around Fenway Park as the sun set on a beautiful early fall afternoon Friday in the Back Bay.

“Buzzy,” said the New York Yankees manager just hours before his team hooked up with the rival Red Sox in a series that everyone in baseball just knew was bound to happen in 2018.

The buzz certainly rattled around the Fens for the start of the first Boston-New York playoff series since the famed 2004 Reverse the Curse season. Now, to be truthful, we’d love it if this series was a seven-gamer for the right to advance to the World Series. But baseball beggars can’t be choosers. Instead, we are left with a best-of-five Division Series that began with all the pressure on the shoulders of the Red Sox.

In Game 1, the Sox flashed their record-setting offense out of the gate and then survived a horrific effort from their ever-shaky bullpen to hang on for a 5-4 win. Game 2, set for Saturday night, promises to be just as nerve-wracking.

Why are the Red Sox the team that needs to show up more in this series? After winning just one playoff game in the last four seasons, it’s time for this franchise to show it can make waves again in October. There is also plenty of pressure to legitimize a truly special 108-win regular season. There’s also the fact that the Red Sox made a decision to go all-in financially this season and own the highest payroll in the sport at $228 million, or nearly $48 million more than the Yankees.

Should we keep going?

There are also a slew of players who need to step up and be counted as playoff-ready talents. At the top of that list are pitchers Chris Sale and David Price. Both are two of the best left-handed starters in baseball but when October rolls around bad things happen. They carried a combined 0-9 record as playoff starters into this series. Throw in Game 3 starter Porcello and no one at the top of the Sox rotation owns a win in 14 playoff starts.

This needs to change, because as first-year manager Alex Cora said, his team isn’t constructed to hand the ball off to the bullpen in the sixth inning every night like the Yankees and the Indians.

“We work differently than other teams. We relied on our starters throughout the season. They carry us,” Cora said.

That did not happen in Game 1. Sale got the start, with good reason. After developing arm soreness in July, the lefty was babied the remainder of the season. This was the smart move, especially for a team that was already on a record pace and running away with the A.L. East crown.

But after pitching just 29 innings in the second half of the season, no one could really tell what Sale would bring to the mound in Game 1. Was the ace ready for the playoffs?

The answer was he looked good, but not nearly long enough. Sale mixed a mid-90s fastball with some sharp sliders to work his way through the first five innings. He carried a 5-0 lead into the sixth but tired and left after throwing 93 pitches. That turned the spotlight to the team’s bullpen and boy did that group stink.

From Ryan Brasier to Brandon Workman to Matt Barnes, the relievers confirmed every worst fear of Sox fans who’ve fretted over the pen all summer. The trio pulled the Full Monty of relief pitching gaffes: walking the first hitter faced, falling behind weak hitters and sending heart monitors at hospitals across New England into overdrive.

To restore order to open the eighth inning, a shaken Cora had to turn to a starting pitcher. Rick Porcello nearly walked Gary Sanchez (.186 average) but was bailed out by a bad call and retired the first two Yankees. Craig Kimbrel, another pitcher with something to prove, came on and secured the third out. In the ninth, Aaron Judge pounded a Kimbrel offering into the bullpen in right to make it a 5-4 game but the closer blew away Giancarlo Stanton (four strikeouts) and Luke Voit to record his first playoff save as a Red Sox.

So the Sox found a way and won a game they badly needed to open what promises to be a long series. How did they deal with the playoff pressure?

Shakily, at best. Batten down the hatches, the buzz is back.