ST. PETERSBURG -- Of all the songs that boomed out of a celebratory Red Sox clubhouse late Sunday afternoon, the one that resonated the most came out in 1977.
It was “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees, and it seemed to play on an endless loop for a while.
By the end of the day, it mattered little that the Red Sox suffered a 5-1 loss to the Rays. Less than an hour later, Boston’s improbable climb back from a brutal first three months of the season resulted in a trip to the postseason.
This, thanks to a bit of poetic justice. Once the loss to the Rays was over, the Sox just needed one result: An Astros loss to the Braves.
Enter Mike Yastrzemski, the grandson of Red Sox legend Carl, who belted a three-run homer to snap a 1-1 tie against the Astros.
All these years later, another Yaz came through for Boston. And then it was party time.
How best to describe it?
“There was a lot of beer,” said Red Sox lefty Payton Tolle.
There was also champagne that sprayed everywhere, a hose that randomly fired water at players when they least expected it, and, of course, cigar smoke.
Excessive for a team that is a Wild Card entry and not a division champion? Not the way this season played out.
“They didn’t take no for an answer,” said interim manager Chad Tracy, who took over a 10-17 team from Alex Cora on April 26, and helped keep the team afloat until it took off.
It’s a postseason appearance few saw coming when the Sox started the season 32-46. Not only are they the first team in history to advance to finish above .500 after losing as many as 46 of their first 78 games, but now they have a postseason berth to go with it.
Currently sitting as the No. 5 seed, the Red Sox are most likely to open their playoff run with a best-of-three Wild Card Series at Yankee Stadium, starting on Sept. 29. It would be a rematch from last year, when the Yankees won in three games after the Sox had taken the opener behind a brilliant performance by Garrett Crochet.
There will be more than a week of anticipation for the latest chapter of the most storied rivalry in baseball, but Sunday was about recognizing what happened over the last three months.
Five months ago, it was easy to wonder if chief baseball officer Craig Breslow made the right decision when he dismissed long-time manager Cora and dismissed or reassigned six coaches after just 27 games on a stunning Saturday night in Baltimore. There were no regrets or second guesses by Sunday.
“We believed in the players that we had, and I felt it was really important that we acted definitively and decisively when we did, so that we could create an environment around the players that was supportive, and that would allow them to thrive,” Breslow said. “And they responded, and while there might have been people that questioned what this group was capable of, I think they answered resoundingly.”
Before the answers came a group that stayed together.
First baseman Willson Contreras, who quickly developed into the team’s spiritual leader in his first season with the team, remembers a group text he sent even before the team took off.
“I did believe in my team,” said Contreras. “I did believe in everybody who was here. I never had a doubt that this team would get to the position we are in. At one point, I texted the team and I just said, ‘Keep believing in ourselves.’ I said, ‘Believe.’ That was our main word. And that’s what we believed from Day 1.”
To get to the point where belief turned into Sunday’s reality, the Red Sox went on a midsummer run that can be stacked up with any in club history.
“When you work as hard as we have worked, it was almost July [before we got going], and to fight as hard as we did, to put ourselves in the position we did, I don’t think you care much how [the spot is clinched],” said Tracy. “You just want to see your ticket get punched.”
For several weeks, the Red Sox never stopped punching. The road back to contention started with a four-game sweep of the Yankees at Fenway from June 25-28.
It continued on July 3, when the Sox began what would become a winning streak of 15 games, tying the franchise record set by the 1946 pennant winners of Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio and Johnny Pesky.
And even after that streak was snapped, the Sox shortly thereafter ripped off another nine-game winning streak, giving them the best 30-game stretch (27-3) in team history. Including the Yankees sweep that started it all, Boston was 32-5 from June 25-Aug. 7.
Just when the rabid fanbase known as Red Sox Nation thought they were losing their summer, the staff and players gave it back to them. And now, it will continue into autumn.
As the champagne flowed, Contreras addressed the team for about 90 seconds.
“This is just the first step ahead, to get to the postseason,” Contreras told his teammates. “I just wanted everyone to know that I’m proud of every one of you. It’s a long season. We played through injuries, we played through a staff change, but we never stopped believing and that’s why we’re here."
And to paraphrase the Bee Gees, they found a way to stay alive when it didn’t seem possible to most.