HOUSTON -- As can be expected when the final game of the season ends in defeat and not a champagne bath, the Red Sox treated the arrival of the postseason early Saturday morning with a mixture of regret and gratification.
The Red Sox will not, as it turns out, be moving to face the winner of the NLCS in the World Series, as seemed nearly inevitable only days earlier. And that's perhaps the bittersweet feeling that will linger well into the winter. Because as the eighth inning of Game 4 unfolded at Fenway Park last Tuesday night, that certainly seemed to be the case,
The Sox led the Houston Astros by a run and were six outs away from taking a commanding three games to one lead in their best-of-seven series. After dropping the opener, they had established their dominance by twice in a row sprinting to a 9-0 lead in Games 3 and 4. The Astros managed to stabilize their pitching for Game 4, but still, the Sox held a 2-1 lead.
But when Jose Altuve homered off Garret Whitlock in the top of the eighth, things were never same. The following inning, the Astros blew things wide open, tacking on six more runs and the series had undergone a sudden, dramatic turn. The Red Sox offense went into hibernation, with just three more runs over the next three games.
And now the Astros are moving on and the Red Sox have receded into the baseball background, and now the Red Sox found themselves stuffed into that uncomfortable space between defiance and acceptance.
"This was a hell of a ride for us,'' said a subdued Kiké Hernandez. "The expectations from everybody outside our clubhouse was second-to-last-place in the division. We didn't agree with anybody that was saying that. We believed in ourselves. We got to this point, man -- we were two wins away from going to the World Series and we didn't accomplish what we wanted to. But we did some special things and the Red Sox are going to be a problem for a long time.''
When it comes to evaluating the 2021 Red Sox season, some context is critical.
Hernandez's recollection of modest -- at best -- expectations for this team were in place back in spring training. The Red Sox were coming off a last-place finish a year ago. Their best starter wouldn't be available to them until August at the earliest and the status and availability of arguably their second-best starter was decidedly unknown after he had missed all of the previous season.
Most would have been happy to see a winning record for 2021.
But when, after face-planting in the initial series of the year, the Red Sox broke from the gate unexpectedly and occupied first place for most of the first half, expectations changed. A second-half dip, worsened by a COVID-outbreak, knocked them from the top spot. They were forced to scramble in the season's final week just to retain a wild card spot.
Subsequent wins over the dreaded Yankees and division-rival Rays upped the ante considerably. Suddenly, this edition was drawing comparisons to the plucky 2013 group, and well, why not? They had delivered the kind of season that always proves to be the most rewarding for everyone involved: the unexpectedly successful kind.
But this past week brought with it a cold brace of reality. The Red Sox still have some work to do.
The season had its own revelations. His bobble of a catchable ball in Friday's first inning that led to an Astros run notwithstanding, Hernandez proved to be an electric performer and standout center fielder. Hunter Renfroe, even allowing for a dreadful skid in the postseason, led the team in homers and RBI after the All-Star break and dazzled with his arm strength in right. Bobby Dalbec, crawling from the wreckage of a disastrous first half, showed significant growth at the plate over the final two months.
On the mound, the Sox saw several breakthroughs, not the least of which was Whitlock, who went from anonymous Rule 5 pick to most trusted reliever in the span of a few months. A jump to the rotation is next. Tanner Houck further solidified his spot in the rotation of the future with swing work that alternated between dazzling at times -- his outing in Game 2 of the ALDS was series-saving -- and maddeningly inconsistent. But then, that's the development path for most pitchers. Nick Pivetta embodied that, too, but at the very least, is part of the rotation picture going forward.
Some uncertainty surrounds the roster, as it does for every club -- champion or not. Eduardo Rodriguez and Adam Ottavino face free agency. J.D. Martinez (again) has an opt-out decision. Kyle Schwarber has a mutual option that the Red Sox would happily vest, but he almost certainly won't. As always, there will be a different look to the roster next February.
"We have a chance here to be very a good team for a very long time,'' said Hernandez. "Our core is young still. We have some young arms that are more than capable of not only (contributing to) the rotation but the bullpen as well. There's not many guys there reaching the end of their career, which is always a good thing.''
As Hernandez spoke, in the bowels of Minute Maid Park well past midnight, some teammates trudged past him in the hallway -- off to the team bus, off to the winter, off to the uncertainty that always marks the end of one season.
"I think moments like this makes the group come back stronger,'' he said. "Obviously, the experience in this clubhouse everybody got out of this postseason is going to be huge in the future. There's nothing like the postseason until you experience the postseason. You can talk about it as much as you want to the younger guys and you can kind of take them through what to expect. But nothing (compares) to actually playing in it.
"Now they know how much it hurts to go home. We all have a better idea now of what we didn't do and what we can do better to come out on the other side next year.''