ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- For the past two decades, the ante has been upped for Boston sports teams. Thanks to the success of the Patriots (six Super Bowl titles) and Red Sox (four World Series championships) and one parade each from the Bruins and Celtics, it's championship or bust.
That's an exacting standard, but one that the teams themselves created for themselves. Mere playoff appearances are not sufficient to satisfy the thirst for yet another ring.
But Tuesday's wild card win over the arch-rival New York Yankees brought with it a sort of freedom for the Red Sox. Had they made just a brief cameo appearance in the wild card game before bowing to the Yanks, there would have been some reckoning for the team.
Once more, the issue of whether Chaim Bloom had done enough to improve the Sox at the deadline would have been front-and-center. And there would have been plenty of voices suggesting that nine innings did not really constitute a playoff appearance. Whatever good feeling there had been on turning a last-place 2020 club into a 92-win team in 2021 would have been short-lived indeed.
But when the Sox beat the Yankees 6-2 -- and beat them convincingly, never trailing -- the expectations shifted again. Getting over the hump that was the wild card game not only provided a boost in momentum, the kind that propels a team through a lengthy October run. But it also seemed to help the team leap over the dividing line that separates ''Yeah-but-they-lost-and-were-out-in-a-day'' carping from the "maybe-they-might-surprise-people-after-all,'' crowd.
That the Red Sox are now squaring off with the Tampa Bay Rays is rich with irony, not the least of which because the Rays are Bloom's former organization. Oddly, given the looming specter of the Yankees in the same division, it's the Rays who now represent the AL's gold standard.
The Rays have yet to win a World Series in their existence, but they went to one last October and gave a good accounting of themselves against a more talented Dodgers team. The Rays, in fact, won a league-best 100 games this past season and taking part in the playoffs for the third year running. When Bloom mentions his goal of sustainability -- the chance to compete for a pennant each season -- it's the Rays about whom he's thinking, and not just because he once worked for them.
Of course, the fact that the Rays have had such success without nearly the payroll capabilities of the Red Sox or Yankees, is part of their appeal, and only raises the bar for both A.L. East behemoths. If the Rays can do all of this with a payroll of $75 million, why can't the Red Sox and Yanks match the Rays' performance, never mind surpass it with operating budgets three times higher?
That's a valid question and one all of baseball has been scratching its head over in recent years. It's particularly galling for big market clubs who spend hundreds of millions in payroll, only to come up short of the bargain-basement Rays in the standings. Should the Rays advance in this series, as many expect, it will only burnish the franchise's reputation as smart Davids to the other guys' slovenly Goliaths.
That's for later, however.
For the moment, the Red Sox are allowed to take a breath. They deftly avoided the trap door that could have opened on them Tuesday, when a loss would have been a winter-long reminder that they were no better than the third-best team in their own division.
It's been a while since the Sox and Rays tangled in the postseason -- 2013, to be exact. The Red Sox have moved on from two managers (John Farrell and Ron Roenicke) since then, while the Rays have a manager (Joe Maddon) move on from them. Tellingly, the Sox are also on their third GM/President of Baseball Operations/Chief Baseball Officer since then, and a revolving door in Baseball Operations is the most obvious evidence yet of the team's maddening boom-bust pattern over the last 10 or so years.
The hope is that Bloom represents stability, and a steady methodical improvement.
That's why, win or lose in the next week, the Red Sox can already take some satisfaction in 2021. A year ago, they had the fourth-worst record in baseball; this year, they won 92 games and on Tuesday night, the electric October atmosphere returned to Fenway, where an energize crowd found delight in the win, yes, but also, in embarrassing the Yankees and ending their postseason as quickly as possible.
If the worst-case scenario unfolds over the next week and the Sox are summarily dismissed by the upstart Rays, however, the Sox will still have made strides, still have something to show for themselves in their first full season under Bloom.
They may not a World Series run in them, but they overcame a COVID-outbreak (however self-inflicted that might have been), rallied in the season's final days and a won a series of must-win game to get in. Then, they trounced the Yankees, which always counts for something.
Of late, the Sox have been taking this a bit too far, trotting out the "no one thought we'd be here'' rallying cry. That's a bit much for an organization with Boston's resources.
No one outside their clubhouse is going to embrace them as plucky underdogs. They have too much recent success and too much money to wear that cloak. But for the first time in a while, they find themselves in unfamiliar territory: They don't have to keep winning. It would be nice if they did, but if they don't, there won't be calls for Bloom's or Alex Cora's head -- not rational ones, anyway.
Lofty as the goal may be, it's not expected that they win every year. For now, the evidence that they're clearly heading in the right direction is enough.