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BOSTON — Imagine the Boston Red Sox invite you to Fenway Park to choose their roster. For every championship team this century, you wouldn’t need any help finding the leading man.
Left-handed left-wing Johnny Damon could have been the obvious choice in 2004. It was the same for the feisty little second baseman Dustin Pedroia in 2007. The game’s top floor thief, Jacoby Ellsbury, seemed to be the role in 2013. Mookie Betts, the dynamo that did it all in 2018.
in 2021? A lot is different about the Red Sox, who beat the Houston Astros 12-3. 3. Game Monday of the American League Championship Series is here. It was the first time they had to play a game of joker. Its rotations are deeper than Houston’s, but usually not as strong as in October.
And front hitters Kyle Schwarber.
At 6 feet tall and 229 pounds, Schwarber is more built for home derby than the Boston Marathon. He never played a base for the Red Sox. Originally a catcher and mostly a left fielder, he was so clumsy at the first base of the division series that he raised his arms in victory after a routine play.
Schwarber has a high base percentage – .343 for his career, one point better than Ellsbury – but that’s not why the Red Sox beat him first.
“It’s not analytical, it’s not a hunch,” coach Alex Cora said after Game 3, when Schwarber’s grand slam led Boston to a two-game-a-series lead. “To be honest with you, it’s just out of necessity. It feels really good with this lineup right now.”
In eight playoff games, this squad produced 57 runs and scored 20 homers while hitting .317. Schwarber took the lead in six of those games (taking a second kick against left-handers) as part of the chain reaction after JD Martinez sprained his ankle in the final game of the regular season.
Cora was driving left-handed Rafael Devers in the cleaning area with the dangerous Martinez behind her. Without Martinez for the wild card game, Cora moved Devers to third place and protected him with short backer Xander Bogaerts in the clearing.
In this configuration though, Schwarber couldn’t hit second because Cora wanted to split her left-handed hitters. So Schwarber came out on top, Kiké Hernández finished second and everything fell into place.
“He’s a real hitter,” said catcher Christian Vázquez. “She walks, she grinds bats. He shoots a lot in at-bat and I think that helps us see more and learn more about the starter or the relaxer. And it can go deep. It’s the perfect pickup for us.”
Schwarber was recovering from a hamstring injury when the Red Sox took him from the Washington Nationals for a Class A pitcher on July 29. He remained on the injured list for two more weeks before his Boston debut.
“You’re on vacation for Christmas with your kids and everything, and all the presents were under the tree – but they’re back home,” Cora said. “We knew it would have an effect, but we had to be patient.”
The Red Sox failed to take first place in the AL East as they expected, but Schwarber’s arrival sharpened their offensive plans on the plate. In a month-and-a-half with the Red Sox (33), he hit .291 with a base percentage of .435 and a deceleration percentage of .522, walking more than former Chicago Cubs teammate Javier Báez had tied all season. Cubs and Mets (28).
“It’s a different approach for us,” Cora said. “We were very aggressive all season. We were expanding. We didn’t walk much and it was different when he came here and started playing. It’s a different at-bat and the other guys followed his lead. And right now, that’s the best I’ve seen on this team this season in terms of offense.”
None of Schwarber’s teams knows exactly where to put him. He started from 100 to 125 at four different points in order: first, second, fifth and sixth. He said he never left until college at Indiana University and then only for a short time. The Cubs tried him twice as a rookie in 2015 and more regularly two years later.
“When I first went with him, I was struggling with this understanding of what the starting point was and what you should be, plus making it your own,” Schwarber said. “You don’t have to have that prototypical speed – not speed; yes, I’m fast – but you don’t have to be that prototypical walker or anything like that. I can already do that for me, so why would I try to push it other than go over there and try to get my bat?”
After all, the leading hitter is only guaranteed to take the first hit in one hit. In a stacked formation like Boston’s, the #1 batter is usually in position to drive on runs. 3. In the second half of the game, his teammates took turns seeing the fields and drawing the walks, giving Schwarber a 2-0 lead and charging the bases against Jose Urquidy, who started him with three balls.
Schwarber rarely swings 3-0; In his regular season career, he took 89 pitches with that number and went 0 for 7 with 82 walks. But plate discipline, he explained, isn’t about making walks, it’s about aggressively seeking strikes to punish. And Schwarber wasn’t about to pick it up when Urquidy took a quick shot through the middle.
He swung hard and started the field right, all in Boston, for his third home run in October. A big slam by a predecessor, Damon, in the 2004 ALCS stunned a stunned and sour crowd in the Bronx. This made a madness At Fenway, where Schwarber punctured his eardrums during the fans’ happy scramble around the bases.
“It gave me a headache and I loved it,” Schwarber said. “I loved every second of it. That’s what you live for, right? That’s it. Obviously, we still have steps to get where we want to be. But having an atmosphere like this is what we feed off of, and it will only help us get better.”
If things get better for the Red Sox, they could win another championship. With another bullet hitter, of course.
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