Will the Red Sox keep the (base)ball rolling into the postseason playoffs?

Rainbow+spotted+over+Fenway+Park+on+June+30.

Courtesy/Kylie Lison

Rainbow spotted over Fenway Park on June 30.

John Anthony Risso, Crier Staff

The Boston Red Sox have a decent chance at making the postseason. They are fighting for the Wild Card and, as of now, are in the postseason. The Red Sox are competing with the New York Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays for this spot. 

This is how the postseason works and what the Sox postseason matchups would look like. Major League Baseball is split into two leagues, the American League and the National League. Each league is broken up into three divisions: East, Central, and West, depending on where the team plays. The best team from each division makes the playoffs. The other two teams in the postseason are the Wild Card teams, which are the teams with the best records that aren’t the division leaders. 

The Red Sox have the chance to be a Wild Card team because the Tampa Bay Rays are the best in their division. Both Wild Card teams play each other in an elimination game. Whichever team has the better record out of the two gets home-field advantage in the elimination game. The winner moves on to the next round. Then the Wild Card winner plays the team with the best record out of the division leaders, while the other two division leaders play each other. Then the winners of those series play each other to determine who goes to the World Series. The same happens on the other side of the bracket.

If the Red Sox make the Wild Card game, they will either play the Yankees or the Blue Jays. The race between the three teams is so tight currently that nobody knows which two of the three will be contenders or where the Wild Card game will be played. If the Red Sox were to make the Wild Card game and win it, they would usually move on and play the team with the best record out of the division leaders. This year the Rays have the best record in the American League; as a result of the Rays being in the same division as the Red Sox, Boston would play the team with the second-best record instead. That means the Red Sox would play the Houston Astros.
Despite their accusations of cheating in previous years, the Astros are a good team. They retained a lot of their all-stars from the 2017 World Series team. If the Red Sox were to beat the Astros and move on, they would play the winner of the Tampa Bay Rays and Chicago White Sox series. Either of these teams would be a challenge for the Red Sox. The White Sox have great pitching and great hitting, which means they have an overall great team. If the Red Sox were to beat the White Sox, it would be a big upset and would be very impressive. The Rays are a familiar team for the Red Sox to face as they are in the same division. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, their record against the Rays is eight wins and eleven losses. This is obviously not good, but at least the Red Sox know the Rays and would possibly know some of the tactics they could use in the postseason. If the Red Sox were to beat the Rays or White Sox, they would move on to the World Series and face the National League Pennant winner. 

The Red Sox are going to have to battle and go against the odds this year, especially in later rounds. Look at 2019, where the Washington Nationals went from a Wild Card team to World Series Champions. That could be the 2021 Boston Red Sox. It’s not impossible for the Sox to win, or to make it deep in the postseason, but it is an underdog story.