Dennis Eckersley has had a front-row seat to the Red Sox’s impressive 2013 turnaround.
The team that collapsed in the second half of 2011 and blew up under Bobby Valentine at the start of the following season has become the favorite in the former closer’s eyes.
“Overall, you name it: deep lineup, guys off the bench, great starting pitching, great guy at the end in [Koji] Uehara,” said Eckersley, a TBS analyst, who also works for NESN during the regular season.
“I think if they have any problems it would be leading up to Uehara in the bullpen. But lineup-wise, they have three gears. If one guy goes bad, another guy steps up.
“[Jacoby] Ellsbury is back from injury, [Dustin] Pedroia did his thing, [David] Ortiz had his MVP-type year, [Shane] Victorino is a better player than I thought he was, Jarrod Saltalamacchia has had a great year on his way to being a free agent. You just go right down the list. They have just been a great team, managed well and everything is lined up so well for the Red Sox, it’s scary.”
But Eckersley knows better than most how little an ideal regular season can mean if it is not followed by a successful postseason. The Hall of Famer was the Cy Young runner-up in 1988 and won that award and the AL MVP in 1992, but gave up gut-wrenching, series-turning home runs to the Dodgers’ Kirk Gibson in the ’88 World Series and to the Blue Jays’ Roberto Alomar in the ’92 ALCS.
“If you had a good year, you have to think I hope nobody ruins it. I hate that. The pressure is on the guys that had great years,” said Eckersley, who will work in the studio for TBS throughout the postseason.
“The one to Gibson is not even my biggest one. That, at the time, was a killer. Luckily, we came back the next year and won the World Series. Thank God. … In ’92, that offseason was miserable. You can have the award back.”
The Red Sox will have home-field advantage through the American League playoffs,and will start their postseason run Friday in Fenway Park against the Rays, with the A’s and Tigers doing battle in the other ALDS.
“I think they are the best team going in, and it’s not just because I am here, definitely in the American League,” he said.
“The number one thing is starting pitching. They didn’t know what was going to happen. They didn’t know [John] Lackey was going to come back like that. [Jon] Lester pitching the way he did after last season. They made a great trade to get Jake Peavy.”e
The National League, though, looks much more wide-open. The Pirates prolonged their first postseason trip in 21 years by beating the Reds in the play-in game, earning a trip to St. Louis. The Dodgers and Braves also opened their NLDS Thursday night.
“The Cardinals have the experience and just know how to win,” Eckersley said. “But you also have to think about Los Angeles, and those top three guys in the rotation [Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke, Hyun-Jin Ryu] are so good. They’ve had a clutch team all year.”