Sox-cess! Boston wins ninth World Series title

The Red Sox have a Hollywood ending as they defeat the Dodgers, 5-1, on Sunday to capture the World Series five games.

LOS ANGELES - This is a city known for stories that stretch believability, both of the personal and professional variety.

 To say the Red Sox weren’t among the favorites to win the World Series at the season’s outset would have been folly. Boston’s payroll and talent base make the franchise an annual threat. A ninth championship is always potentially just a few short months away when spring training convenes in Fort Myers every February.

 To have David Price start and win a clinching game on short rest against the Dodgers is where we venture into Hollywood. To have Steve Pearce homer twice while powering the Red Sox offense to glory just might get you a lunch at The Ivy with a noteworthy producer. To have Alex Cora become just the third rookie manager to steer his club to a title since 1961 likely starts a bidding war between every major studio in town for a working draft of the script.

 Their combined efforts – and the work of so many others – have Boston back on top of the baseball world yet again. The Red Sox clinched their fourth title of this century Sunday night at Dodger Stadium, outclassing Los Angeles by a 5-1 count in front of a sellout crowd of 54,367 fans.

 Boston clinched the best-of-seven encounter in only five games, closing out a third straight opponent on the road to punctuate a dominant run through the playoffs. The Red Sox lost just once away from Fenway Park, and it took the Dodgers a record-setting 18 innings in Friday’s Game 3 to avoid being swept. Boston also captured the last of its 10 games where it scored first in this postseason, squeezing the life out of three opponents thanks to its relentless pressure.

 Price entered the American League Championship Series against the Astros as the only man among 70 not to record a victory in any of his first 10 career postseason starts. He transformed into one of the driving forces behind the latest Red Sox championship, dominating one last time Sunday night in Chavez Ravine. Price set down 14 straight at one point and allowed just three hits while working into the eighth inning, condemning Los Angeles to suffer a second straight runner-up finish in its home park.

 Pearce became the first player in 34 years to hit at least two home runs in a title clincher. Kirk Gibson, star of the last Los Angeles championship club three decades ago, did so for Detroit in 1984. Yogi Berra (1956), Johnny Bench (1976), Reggie Jackson (1977) and Eddie Murray (1983) also populate a list littered with Hall of Famers, elite company joined by a midseason acquisition from the Blue Jays. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez each added solo shots as the Red Sox bats doomed Clayton Kershaw to his 10th career postseason defeat.

 Price survived some early bumps that previously would have dented his psyche. David Freese hit a solo home run to right field on Price’s first pitch of the game. Martinez lost a fly ball to right by Freese that dropped for a one-out triple in the third. On neither occasion did Price come unglued, simply gritting his teeth and going to work for 89 pitches.

 Justin Turner drew a walk after Freese’s blast to the bleachers in right, but Kike Hernandez bounced into a 5-4-3 double play. Price stranded Freese at third base thanks to a Turner groundout and Hernandez’s foul pop along the line in right. No other Dodgers’ hitter reached base until Chris Taylor drew a leadoff walk in the eighth, and Joe Kelly came on to strike out three straight.

 Boston required just three batters to take a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Andrew Benintendi made it a perfect 4-for-4 against Kershaw in the series with a one-out single to center and Pearce was at it again on the next pitch, a fastball out over the plate. He launched a drive to the bleachers in left center for a two-run homer, his third of the postseason and second in as many nights.

 It was Kershaw who blinked again in the sixth, as the finest regular season pitcher of his generation handed the Red Sox an unnecessary cushion. Betts pounced on a slider and drilled a one-out drive to deep left center, making it 3-1. Martinez followed suit leading off the seventh, going deep to center on a Kershaw fastball that caught too much of the plate inside.

 Pearce added the coup de grace in the eighth, touching up Pedro Baez with one final swing. His two-out solo blast to left gave Boston a four-run lead, one protected by Kelly and Chris Sale over the final two innings. Sale, the scheduled Game 6 starter, fanned the side in order in the ninth to make it the best cross-country flight home imaginable.

 Boston’s 119 total wins are the third-most in baseball history. Only the 1998 Yankees (125) and the 2001 Mariners (120) captured more games, and the Red Sox join New York among four franchises to win at least nine Fall Classics since the event’s 1903 inception. Only the Yankees (27) and Cardinals (11) have been more successful, and Boston is now tied for third with the Athletics.

 The Red Sox also became just the third franchise to win four straight trips to the World Series, following up championships in 2004, 2007 and 2013. St. Louis (1944, 1946, 1964 and 1967) and New York (most recently in 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000) are also among the exclusive company Boston now keeps.

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