Imagine a week and a half ago someone telling you that Mookie Betts would hit .217 in the World Series. You’d probably think the Red Sox were going to be in trouble. Then they tell you Chris Sale would pitch five innings for the entire series. Then for good measure, that Xander Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr, Rafael Devers and Mitch Moreland would hit a combined .175. Your response would probably be, “bummer, wait ‘til next year.”
Yet all those numbers are accurate and the 2018 Boston Red Sox are 24 hours removed from another raucous duck boat celebration.
The Sox didn’t get great production from their likely MVP or their ace, but it mattered not. Why? The David Price redemption tour and a dominant bullpen (thanks to a cavalcade of starters coming in from the pen effectively) were a huge part of it. But so too was Boston’s otherworldly offense with two outs and men in scoring position. No other World Series team so consistently took advantage of run scoring opportunities late in innings.
Boston was a two-out offense all year, built around capitalizing on scoring chances. This year’s team had the lowest regular season batting average and OPS out of all four Sox championship teams this century. But they absolutely raked with two-out and men in scoring position.
For the year, the Sox had the best OPS in baseball (.824) with two-out and men in scoring position. It was the highest mark by any Red Sox team in the 21st century. They also posted a 125 weighted runs created (wRC+), the fifth highest in the majors since 2000.
Betts has been one of baseball’s best two-out hitters for a while now. He’s the only player in baseball to hit .380 or better with two outs in two separate seasons since at least 2000 (min. 70 two-out plate appearances per season). This year, he led the league, hitting .382 with two outs.
His rival for MVP consideration, JD Martinez, did the most damage with two down and men in scoring position. He led the American League with a .422 average in those situations and posted the 10th highest average and OPS of any player/season in baseball this century.
The team carried those numbers over into the postseason in a huge way:
Red Sox two-out, runners in scoring position:
Postseason: .420 AVG, .567 OBP, .780 SLG, 1.347 OPS
World Series: .471/.609/.882 1.491 OPS
As Sox writer Evan Drellich pointed out, Boston set postseason records in all of those categories.
Their counterpart in the Fall Classic wasn’t nearly as good.
Dodgers two-out, runners in scoring position, World Series:
.231/.231/.462 .692 OPS
The Red Sox hit just .222 as a team for the series. You see their eye-popping two-out, men in scoring position numbers above. Now compare that to non-two-out, scoring position numbers:
.194/.260/.348
Time and again, Boston came through in the most crucial situations. This includes Eduardo Nunez’s three-run homer in the seventh inning of Game 1, Mitch Moreland’s three-run shot in the seventh of Game 4 and Steve Pearce’s bases-clearing double off Kenta Maeda to put the game out of reach two innings later. The numbers are staggering. Nunez, Moreland, Martinez, Bradley and Betts all posted on-base percentages of .500 or better in two-out/men in scoring position situations.
Price and the bullpen played a huge part to be sure. But playoff baseball is mostly about taking advantage of a few key moments and no one did that better than the ’18 Sox hitters.
As long as we’re on the topic of two-out heroics, the best two-out hitting season this century belongs to a utility man who hit .410 with two outs in 2016. You might have heard of him: Steve Pearce. Go figure. Congrats Sox fans on an unbelievable year!