2014 in 8 Days: Top Red Sox Moments

(Photo by Charles Krupa/AP Photo)

by Dakota Antelman

The long and the short is that 2014 did not treat the Boston Red Sox too kindly.

They went 71-91 in their second season under John Farrell and failed to execute in any of the ways that helped them win a World Series a year ago. Their outfield was weak and much of the left side of the infield began showing signs of mechanical fatigue. 

The Boston bats died in 2014 and as injury reports ran manically through the rows of Fenway and the heads of fans, our lovely defending champions wallowed in a season of despair and mediocrity.

Thus is it no secret that this year's top Red Sox stories all took place off the field...

1) Jon Lester chooses Cubs over Red Sox

After low-balling Lester with a meager $70M contract offer back in Spring Training the longtime Red Sox ace was somewhat irked by the team. Further adding to the perceived lack of respect by the team for Lester was the fact that midway through the season they traded him to the Oakland A's.

That move made it easier for Lester to ignore the "hometown discount" when the negotiation period rolled around this off-season. It was with ease that he turned down a $135M offer from the Red Sox, signing instead a monstrous $155M offer from the suddenly invested Chicago Cubs just last month.

2) Red Sox unload at trade deadline

It cannot be stressed how much the trade that moved Lester out of Boston for the first time effected the negotiations after the season as well as the remaining games in the season.

On July 31st, Lester and charismatic outfeilder Johnny Gomes were packaged in a blockbuster deal to the Oakland A's. The Red Sox got two time home run derby winner, Yoenis Cespedes in return.

At the time the deal seemed somewhat decent as Cespedes brought with him a mega bat and at least an average glove in left field. As they unloaded their pitching though, the Red Sox were soon caught in a vicious cycle of blowouts and games gone to the bullpen by the 4th inning.

John Lackey, Jake Peavy and Felix Dubront were all sent packing at the trade deadline. The players they got in return, though promising did little in the second half of the season and at times began to raise some questions about Ben Cherrington's leadership scheme.

3) Red Sox ink $200M in contracts in one morning

In a time where those questions about Cherrington's ability were burning brightest, the GM jumped into the rebuilding phase quickly and with both feet.

Looking to remedy some run scoring problems from last season, Cherrington dished out $200M in contract money to sluggers Pablo Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez. The deals spawned immense questions about how the team would deal with the two in terms of their defense.

As it finally shook out, team sources suggested to multiple media outlets that Ramirez would spend time in center field and bat in the top of the order. Sandoval would be the starting third basemen for the Red Sox, effectively ending Will Middlebrooks tenure with the team as he did so. (Middlebrooks was traded just a few weeks after the Sandoval/Ramirez signings.)

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Former Sox burnout Jake Peavy playing well since trade to San Fransisco

Former Red Sox pitcher, Cy Young Award Winner and 2 time World Series champion, Jake Peavy, has endured a rather up and down last few years. Bouncing around the MLB, the star has touched down to boos and missed pitches in multiple cities before suddenly finding unexpected success in San Francisco midway through this season.

Peavy was traded to Boston back in 2013 where he soon pitched an ERA of 4.04 while also proving himself to be a tire-easy kind of pitcher. He logged just 62 innings pitched in his 10 starts. Nevertheless, the already mistrusted subject of Bostonian fandom proved his worth in a pivotal World Series game for the Sox in which he held the Cardinals scoreless for the entirety of his 5.2 inning night.

After the Red Sox jumped out to a rather unsatisfactory first half of 2014 though, the team parted ways with Peavy tossing his name into the trade deadline chaos the enveloped Boston this past July. He was traded to San Francisco for Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree.

Though he started 2014 a harsh 1 and 9 with an ERA of 4.72, Peavy came to San Francisco with a kind of drive many never expected to see out of him again. He turned his season around with 6 wins in 10 decisions to go along with a stunning 2.17 ERA. Peavy started playing longer into games, playing more innings and tossing more and more strikes.

Yet like last year’s World Series dominance, Peavy proved his own in the biggest way with another huge playoff win. Friday afternoon’s NLDS Game One saw Peavy start his first Divisional Series game in years. Though before the game, the question was whether or not he would revert to his Red Sox form or play decently, he soon proved that he is back.

Going 5 and 2 thirds innings and tossing in excess of 100 pitches, Peavy kept his control throughout. He walked just three batters and struck out three. He faced 21 batters and was eventually credited with the win over the Nationals.

Peavy is a baseball player in name but a relentless worker at heart. After one of the worst first halves had by any starting pitcher, Jake has turned it around post All-Star Break pitching the Giants into a playoff spot and winning a huge Game One for them.  

Jake Peavy has revived the work ethic and powerful baseball IQ that made him great in the mid to late 2000’s. The result has been spectacular and has dragged the Giants into a place where they could very well win their 3^rd world series in 5 years.

“You can’t give in,” he said Friday of his play in Game One; and that is what he has done.

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Its make or break for Jake Peavy: Why his ALCS start combined with the importance of the one tonight will decide Jake Peavy's longevity as a pitcher

When 32 year old, right handed pitcher: Jake Peavy marches to the pitching mound tonight, the world will be watching simply because of the stage for which Jake is pitching. 

With the World Series knotted at 1 game a piece it is no lame fact that the outcome of tonight's 8:07 game between the Red Sox and Cardinals might very well decide the outcome of the World Series as a whole. After the Red Sox failed to hold onto a 2-1 lead in Game 2 of Baseball's Championship Series they lost home field advantage and fell into a situation where, if they were going to win the Series they would have to steal one on the road. Their first chance to do that comes here tonight and even with as much importance as this game carries, mid-season acquisition, Peavy is as good as the Sox can get. 

We all saw this game on the schedule and cringed when it was announced that Peavy would start it. We joked about it at first but felt a bit of the weight come off our chests when Boston coasted to that 8-1 win in Game One. As the very worst it seemed that going into Game 4 Boston would be UP  2-1 in the series but now, in the event of a Peavy loss, Boston would be trailing a Cardinals team that has had more World Series success than any other since 2000.  

Peavy knows the importance of this start.

"And so to go out in a World Series game and have a chance to sway the odds, the favor, in your direction, on the road, against a team that's got some momentum with a big win at our place? Of course, this is the biggest start in my career." 

The previous 'biggest start of his career' came in the ALCS and it did not work out so well. Peavy struggled to throw strikes and made it through just 3 innings while allowing 5 hits and 7 runs.  

Following that failure, fans questioned Peavy's attitude and accused him of being 'too amped up'. That last part stings the most. Even while taking into account the lack of consistency in Peavy's 6 starts in Boston he has been far better than the alternative. Before Peavy, the Sox were starting guys like Kyle Whilend, Stephan Wright and so many other unprepared AAA starters. Fact is without him, the ease for which Boston clenched the AL East would not have existed and without Jake the AL would probably have belonged to Oakland.  

Peavy must execute tonight and he needs to do it for way more than 4 or 5 innings. Why? Because despite the day off between games 2 and 3, Boston's bullpen is fatigued and it has shown in their lack of poise in clutch situations. You had Dempster allowing the homer in Game One and then there was Breslow's collapse on Thursday night. And those are just 2 mistakes among several that have been committed since pretty much the conclusion of the ALDS.  

John Farrell knows this but also trusts the ability his starter has to bounce back. 

"The one thing I think he's done a very good job of in the last three or four starts is creating an energy level in his delivery that doesn't take away from locating pitches. In his second inning in Detroit, I thought he started to pitch a little too fine and maybe didn't trust his stuff enough, which wasn't the case in the first inning."  

The energy Farrell referenced has never been lacking with Peavy on the mound as it was stated earlyer today  by WEEI's John Dennis that "Peavy cant get through a pitch without screaming at the hitter and screaming at himself for a little while."  

Sox left fielder Danial Nava says that integration with every pitch rubs off on Peavy's teammates. 

"There's no one who wants the ball more than Jake Peavy right now," said Daniel Nava, who will be starting in left field in Game 3. "And I think that's the right guy to have on the mound.When you have a guy yelling at the top of his lungs at himself on the mound, it's also entertaining. It gets me pumped up."

It is make or break for Jake Peavy. A win tonight and he is loved by all. A loss and he might never again play baseball in Boston. 

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Red Sox pitching rotation surging at the right time: Why Boston's current top 3 starters may be the best trio of hurlers in baseball

Jake Peavy, John Lackey and...Jon Lester.

Since the season began almost 5 months ago they have combined for 22 wins in just 55 starts for the Sox. Peavy,  Lackey and Lester have all had their explosions of success but for the first time all season they are all succeeding at the same time.

With Lester in particular his 2013 campaign has been one of ups and downs. After starting off the year with a dominant 6-0 record, the longtime Sox southpaw looked poised to seize a job he had long seemed to be capable of attaining. That job was that of a number one starter.

Yet as quick as his excellence emerged, it temporarily vanished following win number 6. Lester soon fell to 6-3 as after three disastrous starts of 6 innings or less, Jon watched his ERA increases from just 2.72 to a whopping 4.57.

But for Lester right he began for falter, a different John shook off HIS early-season woes to jump ahead and make us cheer as loud as ever. After he started the season and abysmal 1-4, John Lackey seemed poised to renew fans hatred for him. But like was said before, right in the neighborhood of where Clay Buchholz went down and when Lester began to struggle, Lackey caught fire. He stormed to the top of the Sox's pitching card and eventually brought his ERA as low as 2.75. 

But there is more to this haphazard puzzle of pitchers than just 2 names. Yes there is a third name, and that name is Jake Peavy. For nearly 11 years, Jake Peavy was a name not unknown to the baseball world. Even while playing on teams that struggled to win games, Peavy was often a lonely bright spot amidst fields of pathetic losses.

But on July 30th, that all changed. On that late summer day, Peavy left his teams of playoff-less baseball behind and came to a surging little ball club named the Boston Red Sox.

Then, in the blink of an eye, Peavy, Lackey, and Lester all came together. Since the Peavy trade, the trio of Sox have combined for 5 wins, allowing just 34 runs in almost 100 innings. But perhaps the biggest gem in the many that have been produced by these three men came on Sunday. 

All season long manager John Farrall had made a habit of limiting his pitcher's workload often pulling guys in the 8th of 9th innings and ending their night's mere outs away from a complete game. All season long, the Red Sox had not seen one of their own hurl a complete game...that is until Peavy did it on Sunday. He threw 111 pitches and allowed just 3 hits and a run for the second complete game of his 2013 season, delighting fans and greatly pleasing his manager John Farrell. 

“Jake was outstanding tonight,” Farrell said. “He threw some big pitches when he needed to.” 

Jake Peavy was outstanding, so was Lackey and Lester, not just on Sunday but on almost every day that they take to the mound. 

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Jake Peavy dominates in first game since trade: Red Sox win 5-2 over Diamond Backs

Deep, back and GONE!

The Boston Red Sox smacked 2 home runs last night en route to a dominant 5-2 win over the Diamond Backs. Victorino homered, Saltalamaccia blasted one, but after 9 innings of baseball, it was the performance of a man who recently changed his Sox that really stood out.

After he was traded to the Sox back on July 30th, Peavy came to Boston and watched in awe as Boston's first game after the trade ended with a 6 run ninth inning. 2 games later he was doing more than just cheering from the dugout, he was pitching.

"Truly from the bottom of my heart, something I'll never forget," he said after Fenway welcomed him with a aucapella signing of Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama". 

But for Peavy, he would soon give Sox fans reason to stop the singing and start cheering. Through 7 full innings, Jake was spectacular. He allowed just 3 hits in those 7 innings and saw just 1 run scored on his watch (although he would get charged with another via an inherited runner). He fanned seven batters and in the end would earn the win for Boston. 

"Winning is what it's about," Peavy said. "I don't care where you win. I don't care if you win at ping-pong in the clubhouse. It's fun to win, and that's why we all show up to the ballpark every day is to find a way for your team to win. I can't tell you how excited I was tonight. I told a few guys I had some nerves. Obviously around 300 starts, I felt like it was one of my first."

But there was some more to this story that goes beyond those 7 K's and 3 hits against. In the legal book, Jake Peavy is blind and while he can see enough to throw a baseball, even with the hard core contact lenses that he owns, catcher Jarrod Saltilamaccia had to go to some great lengths to accommodate the needs of his pitcher. According to NESN's Don Orsillo, Saltalamaccia painted his finger nails with neon green paint to allow Peavy to read his signs. 

In my book...well, that worked. 

But all of Saltilamaccia's work last night was not done BEHIND the plate. In the very inning that Peavy left the game, "Salty" came to bat in the 8th with one man on and the Sox leading 3-2. On the first pitch thrown to him, the Boston catcher got all of his swing and smacked his 10th home run of the season deep into his team's bull pens. 

 "In the seventh inning, Patrick ran out of gas a little bit. He made some pitches where he didn't want them," said Arizona manager Kirk Gibson when speaking about his starting pitcher who allowed Saltilammaccia's homer. "Boston, what they do is they see a lot pitches and they foul a lot of pitches off. They got his pitch count up."

Last night was a night of the long ball, it was a night of baseball players painting their fingers green and a night of a man named Jake Peavy, possibly giving you reason to believe that this Red Sox team is no longer simply a contender to get to the playoffs but is now a possible FAVORITE to win baseballs ultimate title: a World Series.

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