The Red Sox are one win away from ending the season of the defending American League champions.
In what is now the first year of a title contention window for Alex Cora’s group, his team has taken on a different identity than originally anticipated, and they’re just getting started.
“I would say scrappy,” said shortstop Trevor Story before Game 2 of the American League Wild Card series. “We have a tight-knit group. Our chemistry is off the charts. I think that serves us well. We have this belief in our team that we can get it done, kind of no matter what the score is early in the game, late in the game.
‘We are really confident in what we can do. It lends itself to a game like yesterday, where we are down for most of the game, we have a spark and we come back and win.”
The “scrappy” identity is merely a testament to Cora’s leadership, which is universally praised around baseball. The 2025 Red Sox were supposed to be about the future, but now they find themselves one strike away from a knockout of arguably the most talented team in the AL.
Yes, they brought in veteran Alex Bregman on a three-year, $120 million contract. They did execute a trade to acquire an ace pitcher in Garrett Crochet, who showed the Yankees in Game 1 what they will be dealing with for the next six years.
“In my wildest imagination, yes, I did [think Crochet would be this good],” said Cora after Crochet tossed 7.1 innings of one-run ball while striking out 11 in their Game 1 win over the Yankees.
However, this installment of the Red Sox was supposed to be about three names:
Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell and Marcelo Mayer.
The trio of previously labeled “super prospects” were all absent from the Wild Card roster for different reasons. Campbell struggled — .664 OPS in 67 MLB games — after making the Opening Day roster, Mayer — .674 OPS in 44 games — is recovering from a wrist injury and Anthony is out for the season with an oblique injury.
Anthony has all the makings of a future MVP candidate. The 21-year-old outfielder slashed .292/.396/.463 with eight homers and 32 RBI in 71 games as the youngster was pretty clearly their best player throughout the second half of the season.
The future was always bright for the Red Sox entering the season, but the now was always in doubt.
“Let’s be honest, nobody thought we were gonna make it to October [when the season started],” said Cora on Saturday. “Whoever says that, ‘Yeah, we were a playoff team,’ that’s f–king bulls–t, to be honest with you. Nobody thought we were gonna make it to October. It was New York. It was Baltimore, it was Toronto, you know, and we believed we were going to play in October. We set our standards every single day. And we hit our standards.”
And that’s kind of the point as the Red Sox and Yankees entered Game 2 of the American League Wild Card series on Wednesday. Boston is arguably a year early in their arrival and they’re without their best and most feared hitter. The Yankees are smack in the middle of a title contention window with Aaron Judge, who — in his 10th season — still has zero postseason accolades to show for.
If the Red Sox get the Yankees now, in this season, the future is even brighter than expected in Boston.
