It's a good bet that no one can relate more to the 2019 Red Sox season than outgoing San Francisco Giants manager Bruce Bochy.
Bochy won his 2,000th career game Wednesday night at Fenway and won three World Series while managing the Giants -- 2010, 2012, and 2014.
It was a staggering achievement, winning three titles in the span of five seasons. But in each of the years following a championship, Bochy's Giants -- like this year's Red Sox -- failed to get back to the postseason.
Each time the Giants slid backward, there were obvious contributing factors. In 2011, they lost Buster Posey for the season following a horrific collision at the plate in the second month of the schedule. Another time, Tim Lincecum, who had won two Cy Young awards, began his precipitous decline, posting a 5.18 ERA in 2013, nearly twice what it was a season earlier.
It was if, in retrospect, the Giants needed a year to recover from the toll winning the World Series had placed on them. And that's not far from the truth.
Nor does it make them unique in modern history. Now that the Sox won't be taking part in the 2019 postseason, six of the last nine World Series champs failed to even make the playoff the following years: the 2010 Giants, the 2012 Giants, the 2013 Red Sox, the 2014 Giants, the 2015 Kansas City Royals and the 2018 Red Sox.
While all the talk has centered around the difficulty of repeating as champions -- something that hasn't been done since the Yankees won three straight from 1998-2000 -- perhaps the focus should shift just qualifying for the tournament the year after.
That's hard enough, apparently, and you don't have to remind Bochy.
"It's hard,'' said Bochy. "A lot of things have to go right for you to win a championship. You've got to have a lot of your guys have their normal years, if not better-than-usual years. You've got have some surprises, maybe the ball has to bounce your way a bit, or you get some calls. To go all the way, it's really, really difficult. Now, to do it again, I mean, it's tough. It's just that difficult.
"This team (the Red Sox) is a very good club over there and they've had to deal with injuries. You lose a guy like (Chris) Sale and it affects your ballclub. They're going to bounce back; they're too good not to. But I think this re-affirms that winning a championship is not that easy.''
And, more to the point, positioning yourself to defend the title the following year may be even harder.
As Bochy sat in the visitor's dugout and looked across the way, he mused about the culture shock the Sox are now going through. At this time a year ago, the Sox were discussing their postseason roster and getting their pitching in order. This September, they were playing meaningless games and that's a big comedown.
"It is, it is,'' he said. "We've been through it. When you're trying to get there and you're approaching the postseason, you're running on adrenaline. And it's hard to maintain that (when you're not in contention). That's one of the toughest things in this game. But we all have a job to do, and a responsibility. As much as you say it, though, it's still tough for these players. We play so many games and to get yourself up to that level every day, it takes something really special. You sometimes have to remind yourself -- as a team, as a player -- and that's what we do.''
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