Although the Boston Red Sox didn't get the result they had hoped for Friday, there are big things coming.
The Sox didn't garner much enthusiasm heading into the 2020 season, and even had a projected win total of 80.5 from DraftKings Sportsbook. But they grinded their way to 92 regular-season wins and a spot in the American League Championship Series -- with many of the new faces on the roster people coming through with the finest performances.
The 2021 Red Sox featured a solid mixture of new guys, from Kiké Hernández to Hunter Renfroe and Kyle Schwarber. Then there were the returners like Xander Bogaerts, Rafael Devers, plus a good mix of young talent like Garrett Whitlock and Bobby Dalbec.
That makes for a team that should be competitive next year and beyond, with even more reinforcements likely on the way through free agency and a bolstered farm system.
Boston starter Nathan Eovaldi was effusive in his praise after their Game 6 loss to the Houston Astros.
"On the year nobody expected us to be here. We proved a lot of people wrong," Eovaldi said, as seen on NESN postgame coverage. "We believed in ourselves as a team. We were able to overcome a lot of obstacles together to get to this point."
Red Sox manager Alex Cora was equally pleased with the squad after the tough loss.
"It's an amazing group we will always remember. In the offseason trying to recruit players and buy into the concept that we were going to be good, it was hard but at the end of the day we did an amazing job," Cora said. "Not too many teams can say they were in the league championship series ... We're going to look back and be very proud of the group."
The 2021 Red Sox were both fun to watch, and also much better at baseball than many expected.
And this is just the beginning.
Kiké Hernández might have said it best: "The Red Sox are going to be a problem for a long time."
