HOUSTON -- Jackie Bradley Jr. is too streaky. J.D. Martinez isn’t good enough to play for the Astros, victims of their own success. David Price is incapable of pitching well in the postseason. Dave Dombrowski can never build a bullpen.
Any World Series team has a collection of feel-good stories, doubts that were overcome. But on the 2018 Red Sox — the winningest team in the franchise’s regular-season history, now bound for the Fall Classic after bulldozing the defending champs on the road — a particularly large assortment of memorable journeys have converged.
Reputations have been rewritten or simply shed on the way to a pennant. Reward and growth are easy to see; some in numbers, like six shutout innings from Price, and some in more meaningful ways.
When asked during the champagne celebration about his 11-month-old daughter, Lydia Joy, who has undergone multiple heart procedures, Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel said even the question would cause him to choke up.
On the field, Kimbrel looked more dominant in his pennant-clinching Game 5 save than he has in a long time, a product of some fixed mechanics after a realization he was tipping pitches. Family and baseball are not to be conflated, but achievement in the latter can mean so much more when dedicated to the former.
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Alex Cora, the rookie manager who kept his faith in Kimbrel, has all season carried not only balanced the pressures of a clubhouse, but an island in repair.
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“There's a lot of people proud of me back home,” the Puerto Rico native said. “I mentioned it earlier today during the celebration, that I only asked for one thing in the negotiation. And I know a lot of people have made a big deal of that. But I just asked for a plane full of supplies. And we went down there and we helped 300 families in my hometown.”
"We've been going through a lot as a country back home. But if it's a special night for my country, well, you know what, celebrate. It's amazing. It's amazing. I can't wait for this to be over and go home in the offseason and celebrate with them. And we still got work to do.”
Fans, media, Twitter trolls -- there was a large collection of people who were ready to declare Jackie Bradley Jr. expendable. Then he cracks home runs in Games 3 and 4 in the ALCS and is named the series MVP.
“I’m so happy for him,” said Mookie Betts. "We’ve been through the ranks together. It’s one of those things where I can look next to him and know that we’ve been together kind of every step of the way. I knew what kind of player he is. He’s proven it. he definitely proved it this series. He’s not just a glove out there. He can do it all.”
David Price may not have to answer that question, the question, about the postseason again, about why he apparently can’t handle it as a starter. He can talk about his past failures as his past, and he acknowledged how much that meant to him on Thursday.
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J.D. Martinez homered in the ball park he called home to begin his career, knocking off the team that once said he wasn’t good enough to make it in the big leagues. The slugger was humble about it afterward, noting that it felt good to defeat the defending champions — but taking no public pride in ousting the team that cut him four years ago.
The list goes on. Dana LeVangie, pitching coach, has spent his entire professional baseball career with one organization, from player to scout to coach, and rose through the ranks in a way few ever do.
Every other team improved its bullpen at the trade deadline. Dombrowski stood pat with his pitching aside from Nate Eovaldi, and he's gotten the result he wanted.
Eovaldi's had Tommy John surgery twice, and hit 101 mph in Game 5. Ryan Brasier hadn't pitched in the big leagues in five years and may become a household name -- at least among baseball fans -- in the late innings of the World Series.
“It's a full team," Martinez said, "And I think today, this whole series, this whole playoffs has been a display of that.”
The playoffs too have been a display of how individual journeys shine together.
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