On October 1, this blog asked the question whether offense  can carry an MLB Team to a World Series title.

The Boston Red Sox are four wins away from answering that question in the affirmative, at least partially, after winning the American League pennant last night against the favored Houston Astros. The Sox, who continue to enjoy home field advantage, are now 5-0 on the road in the playoffs, as they wait to see whether their Fall Classic opponent will be the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Milwaukee Brewers.

The sports media industry appeared to be as ill-informed as the “Trump can’t win” political pundits by making the Sox the underdogs against both the New York Yankees and the Astros.

In the division series, Boston defeated the Yankees three games to one, scoring 27 runs to the Bronx Bombers’ 14. In the AL champion series, after dropping the first game at home, the Sox eliminated the defending champions four games to one, with a run differential of 29 to 14.

Starting and relief pitching obviously plays a vital, and typically decisive, role in the post season.

Surprisingly, Sox pitching held up too, which included starters Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, Nathan Eovaldi, David Price (who finally got a post-season win Thursday night), and Eduardo Rodriguez entering in a relief role on their off days.

As WEEI host Glenn Ordway noted, first-year manager Alex Cora is “scotch-taping” the bullpen together, which performed better than the Astros’ counterparts, even with closer Craig Kimbrel’s near meltdown on Wednesday night. Unlike his predecessor, Cora prioritizes developing and maintaining strong rapport with the clubhouse.

Expect more mixing and matching of starters and relievers in the upcoming World Series which starts on Tuesday night.

On Opening Day 2018, the Red Sox collectively suffered a meltdown against the Tampa Bay Rays in the 9th inning at Tropicana Field, but they turned it around the next day and never looked back, on the way to an incredible 108 wins.

It’s refreshing that a team that sustained regular-season excellence is heading to the title round. That is not always the case in pro (or college) sports with a watered-down significance of the regular season. MLB is unique in that even given the marathon, pre-playoffs 162-game season, every game is important. The seeming randomness of baseball is another unique, compelling feature.

Center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. was named MVP of the ALCS. He had just three hits, but two were home runs (one a grand slam), accounting for nine RBI.

When they give up the DH in the National League stadium pursuant to MLB rules for at least two games, the Red Sox braintrust will be forced to make a decision as to whether to break up their spectacular outfield consisting of JBJ, presumed AL MVP Mookie Betts, and Andrew Benintendi in order to get J.D. Martinez into the game. Betts was an infielder before he broke into the big leagues.

One perhaps radical possibility is to put Betts at second base so that Martinez, the best hitter in baseball, can get in the lineup as an outfielder. If the team decides to simply sit one of the regulars, such  as the ordinarily light-hitting JBJ, the team will likely insert him back in the game in the late innings as  a defensive replacement for Martinez, particularly if Boston has a lead.

The Sox will be the heavy favorites to prevail over their National League opponent, which hopefully won’t jinx them as the World Series moves forward.

One thing is for sure. Regardless of what happens, Red Sox President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski seems off the hook for not adding another bullpen arm.

As a digression, who decides when the champagne party is over over, such that it’s safe to remove the plastic from the lockers, and the players can  shower and change into their street clothes without being covered in bubbly?

The MLB product is compelling but they need to speed up the damn game

As far as MLB generally, after saber-rattling for several years,  the commissioner’s office must finally implement a pitch clock next year. This is absolutely necessary to mitigate all the time wasting between each pitch, which includes hurlers wandering around the mound, staring at the catcher interminably, as well as position players stepping out of the batters box, adjusting  batting-gloves even when they don’t swing, and all the other idiosyncrasies that tend to extend games to four hours. In short, everyone needs to stay at their workstations.

MLB also needs to come to some rational agreement with the television networks for some playoff game telecasts in the daytime. Earlier evening start times would also be highly beneficial to attract the next generation of fans.

Memo to TV directors: No one cares about people in the stands high-fiving each other.  Keep the cameras on the field. That fans wear team jerseys — very strange apparel for a grown man or woman — does not constitute being a member of the team.