(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Boston wins World Series; Second title for Xander Bogaerts
Nederlands
 LOS ANGELES, California (USA) -
Boston Red Sox won 5-1 against Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday (October 28) in Game 5 to win the 114th World Series, 4-1.
With that, Boston won its fourth Championship-title since 2004.
Back then, in the 100th World Series, Boston won its first title since 1918 and with that, the legendary 'Curse of the Bambino' ended.
The BoSox then won again in 2007 and 2013.
For Boston, this was the ninth time it won the World Series.
In 1903, when it was called Boston Americans, the team was the first-ever winner of the Major League Final between the champions of the National League and American League.
Boston was led for the first time this season by Alex Cora, who became the first Puerto Rican to win a World Series as Manager.
He played for Puerto Rico in the 2006 and 2009 World Baseball Classic.
Cora became the first rookie Manager to win the World Series since Bob Brenly did it in 2001 with Arizona Diamondbacks.
Overall, Cora is only the fifth rookie Manager to win the title.
Before Brenly, the others were Bucky Harris (Washington Senators, 1924), Eddie Dyer (St. Louis Cardinals, 1946) and Ralph Houk (New York Yankees, 1961).
In the regular season, Boston won a club-record 108 games.
The Red Sox won 100 games in a season for the first time since 1946 and broke the club-record of 105 which was set in 1912!
This was the first World Series with two Managers who have been teammates.
In 2002, 2003 and 2004, Cora was teammate of Dodger-Manager Dave Roberts when both played for Los Angeles.
Both also played for Boston.
Roberts won the World Series with Boston in 2004, Cora won the Series with Boston in 2007.
...Xander Bogaerts...
...2nd World Series-title...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
In Game 5, Boston opened the score in the first inning off of starter Clayton Kershaw when Steve Pearce hit a 2-run homerun.
Los Angeles answered with a run in its first at bat when David Freese led off with a homerun on the first pitch by starter David Price.
Boston took more distance by scoring a run in the sixth, seventh and eighth inning.
All runs were scored on homeruns, hit by Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez and again by Pearce to lift the lead to 5-1.
Steve Pearce was named Most Valuable Player.
He batted .333, had eight runs batted in and scored five runs.
Pearce became the first Boston-player to hit three homeruns in a World Series since 1967 when legendary Carl Yastrzemski did it.
The 35-year old first baseman started the season with Toronto Blue Jays, but was traded to Boston on June 28.
Since 2007, Pearce played for Pittsburgh Pirates, Baltimore Orioles, Houston Astros, New York Yankees, again Baltimore, Tampa Bay Rays, again Baltimore and then Toronto Blue Jays before coming to Boston.
With that, in his career, he has played for all teams in the American League East.
For Aruba-born and Netherlands National Team-player Xander Bogaerts, this is his second World Series-title.
He also played for Boston when it won in 2013.
Actually, Bogaerts is the lone player from that team who also played for Boston this year!
(October 28)
(more later)
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