In streaking to a franchise record 108 wins last season, the Red Sox were blessed with a deep, powerful lineup, featuring a handful of players who experienced their best individual seasons: AL MVP Mookie Betts, Triple Crown threat J.D. Martinez, and Xander Bogaerts.
But beyond the stars, some in their peak years, the Red Sox also had a winning approach. From the start, the Red Sox stressed the need to "do damage'' by driving the ball, while at the same time, putting the ball in play on a consistent basis.
Often, power comes at a cost. In focusing on extra-base pop, it's not unusual to see strikeouts spike. It's supposed to be part of the tradeoff. Want to hit the ball a mile? Sometimes, you're going to miss and miss badly.
Across the game, strikeouts have been piling up at a record pace. In 2018, in fact, for the first time in history, there were more strikeouts than hits.
The Red Sox, though, were the exception to the rule. They managed to lead all of baseball in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, total bases, extra-base hits and, most importantly, run scored. And yet, the Sox somehow managed to finish 26th among the 30 teams in strikeouts.
For the Red Sox, it was the best of both worlds: an aggressive offensive mindset that resulted in plenty of power, without the usual accompanying rash of punchouts. (For comparison's sake, the Yankees, who set a major league record for homers in a single season, weren't nearly as adept at making contact, ranking ninth in strikeouts).
"First, it starts with your personnel,'' said hitting coach Tim Hyers. "They've done a good job of getting us players who value that. Personnel is huge. Second is, I think you've got pick your spots and value putting the ball in play, but also, trying to do damage. Alex (Cora) came in here and said, 'I want us to be more aggressive, but also, take our foot off the gas pedal at times and be more precise.' I think it was a day-to-day thing.
"We wanted to put the ball in play hard, not far. That was kind of one of our sayings. 'Hit it hard; don't try to hit it far.' Because when you do that, you tend to get big, and your swing gets long. Sometimes, we did get too aggressive and we'd try to back off a bit. But we had players want to do damage and impact the ball.''
Across the game, strikeouts, once an outcome that would bring some shame and embarrassment for the hitter, are now routine. But Hyers and assistant hitting coach Andy Barkett created an environment where strikeouts weren't dismissed or accepted.
"I don't think any of our guys like striking out,'' Hyers said. "It's the risk-reward factor, knowing, 'OK, I'm going to strikeout some, but if I'm aggressive and I'm laying it on the line, I'm going to hit some homers, too, being aggressive and if I'm striking out a little more, that's OK because the reward is I'm going to drive the baseball a little more.' I think that's the pendulum has shifted to where the reward can out-weight the 'shame.'"
The tradeoff is not unlike what's happened with base-stealing. In a game driven by analytics, baserunning is considered a risk not worth taking often given how precious the 27 outs in a game have become. But if teams can successfully steal, say, 80 percent of the time, it's a worthwhile risk.
It's the same when it comes to the strikeout-power tradeoff: If there's enough reward, a more aggressive approach is considered acceptable.
"I don't look at a number there,'' said Hyers, "and a lot depends on the player. A guy like Brock Holt, he needs to put the ball in play because that's his value. We can accept more strikeouts from someone like J.D. (Martinez) and Mitch (Moreland) because when they connect, they have the ability to change the game and we'll live with (the potential for strikeouts) because of that threat.
"We need J.D. and Mitch to put that threat out there and live on that edge. If they're too protective, then that kind of threat isn't there and that doesn't do us any good because they're there to put a little fear into the pitcher.''
Making consistent contact and putting the ball in play is even more essential when you play half your games at Fenway Park, where a big inning can form quickly, even if it begins innocently with a slow roller or a groundball that snakes through the infield.
"Traffic on the bases changes the pitcher,'' said Hyers, "especially with our lineup. So putting the ball in play and forcing (the opposition) to make a play -- rather than swinging at a pitch out of the zone and walking back to the dugout -- is key.''
Finding the proper balance aggressiveness and consistent contact can be tough, but the Red Sox work on it as a matter of course.
"To me, the driving the ball is a product of having a good swing and being a good hitter and working on what you're supposed to work on,'' said Martinez. "I think that's the mindset. If you hit the ball the right way, it's going to go out of the ballpark. That was our whole thing: don't go up there trying to hit home runs. If you hit the ball square, it's going to go.
"It's about being a hitter first and worrying about the power numbers second.''
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