Red Sox Win 2018 World Series
The Red Sox’s last world series title was in 2013 where they faced the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2018, they faced the back-to-back, returning World Series runner-ups, the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Red Sox had finished off the season with a .667-win percentage and a 108-54 record, highest in the MLB. The Red Sox were division champions for three years straight. The Red Sox’s team was made by a few great players throughout the 2018 season: Mookie Betts, Craig Kimbrel, J.D. Martinez, Mitch Moreland, and Chris Sale. The Los Angeles Dodgers went through the season finishing with a record of 92-71, a .564-win percentage.
In game five, the last game of the world series, Boston went into it with a series record of 3-1. Both teams scored in the first inning, Dodgers 1, and the Red Sox 1. The Red Sox scored in the top of the inning after a one-out single by Andrew Benintendi. It then was followed a two-run home run by Steve Pearce. David Freese led off the bottom of the inning with a home run for the Dodgers. No team had scored until the sixth inning, when Red Sox, Mookie Betts, hit a home run with one out, and then J. D. Martinez hitting a lead-off homer in the seventh to make it 4–1, Red Sox on top. Clayton Kershaw pitched seven innings, allowing four runs on seven hits against the Red Sox, having five strikeouts and no walks. In the eighth inning, Pearce had hit another home run off of Pedro Báez in the final game of the series. Price pitched into all the way until the eighth, allowing only one run on three hits and two walks and striking out five hitters. He had become the fifth pitcher to throw 6+ innings and allowing only three or fewer hits in three straight season starts. Joe Kelly and Chris Sale pitched the last two innings, and both had struck out the side. In the 9th inning, Sale struck out Manny Machado, swinging on a pitch in the dirt for the last out, leaving the Red Sox with the game winner. After the win the score of the game was left at 5–1 and the series, won by the Red Sox, 4–1. Pearce won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award for stirrup up the entire series and giving the win for the team, leaving the Boston Red Sox as the 2018 World Series Champions.