That was fun, huh?
Let's do it a few more (nine?) times.
Not sure where, exactly, the music died at Fenway and around the Red Sox following the blissful run to the 2018 World Series title with a one-of-a-kind team that posted 108 regular-season wins and romped over the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers (11-3 combined) in the postseason, but it did.
The 2019 Red Sox were a mess and Dave Dombrowski was gone after way too many shaky deals and extensions. So many underachievers. Steve Pearce. A 6-13 start that the team never recovered from.
Then there were the Astros sign-stealing revelations that ensnared Alex Cora and forced his dismissal. The Mookie Betts trade did a lot of damage. Covid, an empty Fenway, Ron Roenicke and a last-place finish made people all but forget about the Sox in 2020.
Even this season and with Cora's return, few really believed in this team, especially after an underwhelming trade deadline by Chaim Bloom, and the team subsequently going into the gutter to the point that a 4.5-game divisional lead turned into a 10-game deficit rather quickly. And then the team had to battle tooth-and-nail, after getting swept at home by the Yankees, against the Orioles and Nationals just to get into the postseason during the final week.
But after Tuesday night at Fenway Park, and a 6-2 victory over the Yankees in a do-or-die wild-card game, all of that seemed long forgotten, at least from my seat out in right field.
Oh, the joy was back in Mudville, and then some. Being inside the old cathedral was like being plunged into cleansing waters.
The hatred of the Yankees.
The boisterous boasts from those many pinstriped fans who were in attendance.
A crowd that barely sat down all night.
Spectators who hung on every pitch, and it was absolutely deafening in all the right spots when Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber launched bombs into the stands. When Alex Verdugo kept coming through with RBi, and when Nathan Eovaldi kept punching out Bronx Bombers.
And the place absolutely exploded when Kike Hernandez, Bogaerts and Kevin Plawecki combined on a terrific relay to nail Aaron Judge at the plate and extinguish the Yankees' best chance to stage a comeback.
"That was an important point in the game and definitely changed the momentum," said Giancarlo Stanton.
It was like going back to yesteryear at the old yard. And, man, did it ever feel good for those there, especially the players.
"Unbelievable," said Schwarber, after his first postseason game as a Red Sox. "National Anthem, flag drops on the wall, military members out there. After that, getting your name announced before that, too, just how crazy. And the Bogaerts homer in the first inning, I mean, talk about a pop. The crowd went nuts, and you feed off that energy. You thrive for that, and Red Sox Nation brought it tonight. We needed it, and you can't say enough about the crowd tonight."
Bogaerts has been through this plenty of times before, but even he was taken aback a bit by the atmosphere. He might have forgotten what it was like too.
"It was packed. It was really full," he said. "It was really loud, especially the early innings. Especially when the Yankees were hitting in that first inning, it got really loud. I think it was a huge advantage for us being able to play at home, to be honest with you. I mean, any time you get home-field advantage, it benefits the team, especially if they are one of the teams like us that we play better at home."
Eovaldi, a hero of the 2018 postseason, could feel the energy from the crowd when he walked out to the bullpen to warm up.
"They were getting going and they were fired up," he said. "They were locked in from the first pitch on and feeding off that. ... We were feeding off it, it was definitely there."
For Cora, who spent '20 in exile, it was "fun" being back in command and pushing all the right buttons.
"This is what you want, to be a big-league manager," he said. "I just got lucky that in 2018, I had a great team and we did what we did. Obviously 2019 didn't go the way we wanted and in 2020, we all know what happened. But to be able to play in October, we're blessed. We're lucky."
There was no luck involved in how Cora pushed all the right buttons throughout the '18 season and postseason. His performance against the Yankees, specifically how his bullpen plan was flawless even though it seemed strange (especially lifting Eovaldi after, basically, two hits), started to get you dreaming of another postseason run.
If the magic is indeed back at Fenway Park after a couple of torturous seasons, why not extend the run for a while longer after this momentum-building victory?
"It's big for us," said Schwarber. "It's a well-deserved win tonight. You know, I don't think there's many people that picked us to win this game. We all have faith in ourselves. We knew what we were going to go out there and do tonight, and we just had to execute and we did. So we are going to enjoy tonight, and whenever we are going to Tampa, probably sometime tomorrow, we'll get locked in for that next series."
Sounds like fun (again).