Dissecting the one play that proves this is a magical Red Sox season

Dissecting the one play that proves this is a magical Red Sox season originally appeared in NBC Sports Boston

Dominic Smith was late coming home on a wild pitch, crash-landed near the runway and kicked up a cloud of dirt as Royals pitcher Seth Lugo tagged in. Out, out, a thousand times out.

Except this was case No. 1,001 and provided just the latest evidence that this Red Sox season is blessed.

Red Sox replay coordinator Mike Brenly might be the fastest draw in the league, and he immediately saw what the rest of us needed multiple replays to verify. Even though the pitch easily beat Smith, and even though Lugo had his glove in front of homer at about the moment the Red Sox runner was falling down the third-base line, Smith somehow got his hand into the ball. whirlwind to mark the unlikely breakthrough run.

Coach Alex Cora challenged the decision, showing a big smile on the visiting bench. He knew it would be nullified and without that run, the Red Sox probably wouldn’t beat the 6-5 Royals on Tuesday to move within a half game of Kansas City in the wild card race. They may complete the sweep on Wednesday night.

“Dom wasn’t really sure, he thought he was out,” Cora told reporters, including MLB.com. “You kept looking and looking at him and it was like, ‘Man, he got that – the swimming move.’ Hesitation on the ball, you don’t want to leave the base, but when you have to go, you go.

“We needed every inch tonight.”

Some seasons were meant to be, and this seems to be one of them. The 224-pound Smith looked like Mo Vaughn as he charged down the line after misreading Lugo’s curveball in the dirt. He had nothing to do with scoring after taking his late break, but that’s the story of the 2024 Red Sox.

It was reminiscent of Jose Tartabull throwing out Ken Berry to end an August meeting with the White Sox during the 1967 Impossible Dream season (and let’s be thankful the replay didn’t exist for that one). Or Jeff Stone becoming the unlikeliest of heroes by making his only hit of the 1990 season a shutout that September against the Blue Jays. Or Daniel Nava blasting a game-winning home run on “this is our beeping city” day in 2013.

All three are remembered as magical seasons, even though only one of them ended in the World Series. The latter almost certainly won’t join the latter in the trophy-collecting department, but who cares? The journey has value, and if it wasn’t already clear, the Red Sox are taking us on an unexpected journey.

How else to explain Smith’s run to glory? Lugo’s curveball deflected off the home plate umpire and into the wall, but Smith made such a late bounce that it should have been cooked. As for your “swimming” move to avoid being tagged, let’s hope there was a lifeguard on duty.

“I didn’t really take off until I heard everyone yelling ‘Go!’ and then see the ball finally roll to the wall,” Smith told reporters. “Too late. If you are taking off when the coaches are telling you to go, nine times out of ten you will be out. So I think it’s that moment when you’re not.

“My slide is a little slower than other people’s, so I can have a little more time to move,” he added. “So I think it’s just something where you’re trying to see his glove. You’re trying to touch base before he touches you, and I was able to do that right there.”

The Red Sox are giving themselves every chance to make the playoffs. By taking two of three from the Mariners last week, they clinched the season series. Tuesday’s win did the same against Kansas City, giving them a potential tiebreaker against both teams. They now lead KC in the loss column.

It’s the kind of thing no one saw coming and they’re not going anywhere. Even when they are fully committed, they find an opening and then they find a way.