2018 Red Sox Are One Of Only Eight Teams To Win 108+ Games And The World Series

Jayson Stark (The Athletic) writes: "It's so hard to comprehend history when you're making it."

Stark provides a list of the major league teams that have won 108+ games and won the World Series.

1909 Pirates   110-42   Beat Tigers in World Series (4-3)
1927 Yankees   110-44   Beat Pirates in World Series (4-0)
1961 Yankees   109-53   Beat Reds in World Series (4-1)
1970 Orioles   108-54   Beat Twins in ALCS (3-0), Reds in World Series (4-1)
1975 Reds      108-54   Beat Pirates in NLCS (3-0), Red Sox in World Series (4-3)
1986 Mets      108-54   Beat Astros in NLCS (4-2), Red Sox in World Series (4-3)
1998 Yankees   114-48   Beat Rangers in ALDS (3-0), Cleveland in ALCS (4-2), Padres in World Series (4-0)
2018 Red Sox   108-54   Beat Yankees in ALDS (3-1), Astros in ALCS (4-1), Dodgers in World Series (4-1)

That's it. Eight teams.

Stark: "Perhaps you don't think that this team [the 2018 Red Sox] deserves to be in the same conversation with those [other] teams. If you don't, we've got news for you: You think wrong."

Of those 8 teams:

OPS-PLUS
1927 Yankees   127
1998 Yankees   116
2018 Red Sox   112

ERA-PLUS
1909 Pirates   125
1927 Yankees   122
2018 Red Sox   117

RUN DIFFERENTIAL (162-GAME SCHEDULE ERA ONLY)
1998 Yankees   plus-309
1975 Reds      plus-254
2018 Red Sox   plus-229

The 2018 Red Sox beat the 100-win Yankees in the Division Series. They pushed past the 103-win Astros in the ALCS. They wiped out the Dodgers, who have represented the National League in the World Series for the last two seasons.

Stark:

• The Red Sox were the first team ever that had to beat two 100-win teams just to reach the World Series.

• They were also the first team ever to beat both of the previous year's World Series teams (the Astros and Dodgers) in a single postseason.

• And the Red Sox had to face the two teams (Astros and Dodgers) that led each league in ERA on their way to the World Series. Only five other teams have had to do that — none of them members of the 108-win club. ...

• They started out 17-2 ...

• They went 42 straight series without being swept … and 100 straight games without losing three games in a row … and never lost four in a row at any point ...

• They went 7-1 on the road in the postseason — the second-most postseason road wins ever. They went 2-0 in Yankee Stadium, 3-0 in Houston and 2-1 in Dodger Stadium.

• They went 11-3 in this postseason — a record topped by just the 1999 Yankees (11-1), 2005 White Sox (11-1) and 1998 Yankees (11-2).

• And they never lost more than one game in any of the three rounds — something just three other teams could say (those '99 and '05 White Sox, plus the 2008 Phillies).

Ian Kinsler:

It's not just that we won the World Series. This team ran through the playoffs. Ran through the New York Yankees. Ran through the defending champions. And then beat the L.A. Dodgers in their stadium to be world champs. Those, by all measures, by all media outlets, were the three best teams besides the Boston Red Sox. And this team dismantled those three teams.

Among eighteen amazing facts about the 2018 postseason:

1. The Red Sox went 10-0 this postseason when scoring first. That 10-game winning streak when scoring first was tied for the longest single-season streak in postseason history, according to Elias Sports Bureau research. The only other team to win 10 straight games in a postseason when scoring first was the 2004 Red Sox, who also won the World Series. The third-longest streak also belongs to the Red Sox -- the 2007 team won nine straight when scoring first.

2. David Price was the winning pitcher for the Red Sox in the clinching game of the ALCS opposite Justin Verlander, as well as the clinching game of the World Series opposite Clayton Kershaw. Verlander and Kershaw have each won a Cy Young Award in their careers. (Price has, too.) Elias research tells us that Price is the first pitcher to win LCS and World Series clinchers in the same year, defeating Cy Young Award winners in both. ...

6. The Dodgers lost World Series Game 4 despite leading by four runs after a Yasiel Puig home run. The Dodgers went 54-0 in games they led by four runs at any point in 2018 -- including the postseason -- until that game. ...

8. Boston's top four spots in the order went 0-for-28 in [World Series] Game 3. Elias research tells us that it was the first game in the modern era (since 1900) in the regular season or postseason in which a team's 1 through 4 hitters went 0-for-28 or worse. ...

14. It's tough to mention numbers from the 2018 postseason without noting the Red Sox's 16-1 victory over the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the ALDS. That 15-run margin was the largest road victory in postseason history. The 16 runs were the most the Yankees have allowed in a postseason game.