We always remember the big home run swings from October, because those are the ones that have always made the biggest and best memories in baseball at this time of the year. Whatever happens the rest of the way for the Red Sox, their fans will remember Christian Vázquez’s swing in the bottom of the 13th inning on Sunday night to give the Sox the win that set them up to send the Rays home the next night.
More and more, though, it is relief pitchers who become the stars of the postseason in baseball as much as anybody. Nathan Eovaldi, the ace of the Red Sox staff now, became a Boston legend with the six innings in relief he pitched against the Dodgers in Game 3 of the 2018 World Series -- even on a night when he took the loss, because Max Muncy made one of those home run swings in the bottom of the 18th for the Dodgers.
And last year, the Dodgers finally won their first World Series since 1988. Even with their own great starters, they absolutely don’t win that championship without Julio Urias -- their Game 5 starter on Thursday night against the Dodgers -- giving them dazzling relief efforts in Game 7 of the NLCS against the Braves (three hitless innings), and then the 2 1/3 more hitless innings to close out Game 6 of the World Series against the Rays.
The last time the Red Sox won it all, in 2018, their closer was Chris Sale, striking out the side in the bottom of the ninth and the bottom of the Series against the Dodgers.
Now as the Red Sox try to do it again, getting ready for Game 1 against the Astros tonight, they know they still have a season because of dazzling bullpen efforts from three unlikely bullpen heroes.
Houck is 25 and a rookie. Pivetta was one of Boston’s main starters this season. Whitlock? He is a 25-year-old the Red Sox picked up from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, and he has now become their closer in a season in which Matt Barnes was so good in that role across the first half that he was an All-Star.
Save games? Houck, Pivetta and Whitlock have saved the Red Sox’s season.
Manager Alex Cora, a genius at using relief pitchers at this time of year, gave them all the chance to deliver. And man oh man have they delivered -- around all the crucial swings the Red Sox made after Game 1, all the way to Kiké Hernández’s walk-off sac fly to win that ALDS on Monday night.
The Red Sox were behind, 5-2, in Game 2, and Sale had just given up a grand slam to Jordan Luplow in the bottom of the first. Cora pulled Sale and gave the ball to Houck. He watched the kid proceed to pitch the way he had in his start against the Nationals on Oct. 2 -- a game the Red Sox desperately needed -- and the way he had pitched in one perfect inning against the Yankees in the AL Wild Card Game.
So Houck, going back to that Nats game, retired 29 straight batters. Against the Rays last Friday night, he retired the first 11 batters he faced, ended up going five innings, giving up two hits and a run in a game as the Red Sox were clubbing their way back to a 14-6 victory.
“He has grown,” Cora said later of Houck, “and is getting better and better and better.”
On Sunday night, after Eovaldi had pitched so brilliantly in five-plus innings as a starter, it was Pivetta. There was the thought he might start Game 4. Cora was all-in to win Game 3. He gave the ball to Pivetta in the top of the 10th. Four innings, three hits, one walk, seven strikeouts and a winning pitcher when Vázquez hit that ball into the Monster Seats.
“It’s a moment in time for myself and my team,” Pivetta said afterward.
Kind of.
Finally on Monday night, as the Red Sox were on their way to their second walk-off win in two nights and punching their ticket to Houston, it was the kid, Whitlock, coming into the game in the top of the eighth after the Rays had come all the way back from 5-0 down to tie the game. Randy Arozarena was on second at the time, with nobody out.
Whitlock, the Rule 5 guy, got out of it, with three straight outs to end the eighth. He breezed through a scoreless ninth while he and Fenway waited for more heroics from their hitters -- which they got, starting with the single Vázquez squeezed into left field. You always hear this in sports: Act like you’ve been there before. Whitlock sure did.
“Anybody who tells you they don’t [have butterflies] is lying to you,” Whitlock said later.
He got the win. The Red Sox get a game in Houston on Friday night. Cora got other big outs from relievers after Game 1. Not like the ones he got from Houck, Pivetta and Whitlock. There’s no stat for saving seasons at this time of year. But there ought to be.