“Nobody thought we’d make it to October”

The Boston Red Sox confirmed their place at the fall dance on Friday night, thanks to a ninth-inning triple by the ever-electrifying Ceddanne Rafaela against the Detroit Tigers.

And it went down a treat with manager Alex Cora, who went into raptures after the game.

Nobody thought we'd make it to October. Anybody who says we were a playoff team is bullshitting, to be honest with you. Nobody thought we were going to make it to October. It was New York. It was Baltimore. It was Toronto. And we thought we were going to play in October. We set our standards every day. And we've reached our standards.

Are you okay, Alex?

https://twitter.com/ByChrisMason/status/1972016739165917397

MLB.com had 59 voters predict each division winner and playoff draft pick before the season. The majority of them chose the Red Sox not only to win the American League's Eastern Section title, but also to finish first in the entire American League.

The same is true of Passion MLB, where only one columnist did not place the Sox at the top of the Eastern Section or among the teams drafted.

Moving on.

Boston also received the most votes among FanGraphs staff members to win its division and the American League title, while also receiving the most votes for the number-one seed in the American League.

Want more?

ESPN's preseason predictions had the Low Reds ranked as the ninth-best team in all of MLB, good for a playoff spot.

Here's one more.

The Boston Herald predicted at the start of the campaign that the Sox would win at least 90 games and claim the American East title.

We still don't know what planet Alex Cora lives on.

This content was created with the help of AI.