The Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers will meet in the 2018 World Series, which officially begins on Tuesday with Game 1 at Fenway Park. The two teams previously faced off just once in a postseason series, with the lone meeting taking place over a century ago during the 1916 Fall Classic.
For the Dodgers to reach this point has been nothing short of uphill climb. That’s contrary to last season in which the club cruised to their first World Series appearance since 1988.
Los Angeles, hampered by a number of injuries to key players such as Corey Seager and Justin Turner, struggled out of the gate and entered May eight games out of first place. At one point they sunk to 10 games under .500 before slowly inching their way back into contention.
The return of Turner, as well as the emergences of Walker Buehler and Max Muncy, helped keep the Dodgers afloat during the dog days of summer. The front office further aided the club with midseason trades, bringing in the likes of Manny Machado, David Freese and Ryan Madson for the stretch run.
Los Angeles went on to post a strong 18-9 record in September and forced a Game 163 tiebreaker with the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. They prevailed and came away with their sixth consecutive National League West title, setting up an NL Division Series matchup against the Atlanta Braves.
The Dodgers defeated the Braves in four games, and for the third consecutive season, advanced to the NL Championship Series. Awaiting them was the No. 1 seed Milwaukee Brewers, who entered the meeting with an 11-game winning streak at hand.
As expected, it was a tightly-contested series that came down to a win-or-go-home elimination Game 7. The Dodgers, having been in this position only a year ago, used that experience to their advantage and captured the 23rd pennant in franchise history — tying the San Francisco Giants for most in NL history.
As for the Red Sox, their path to the World Series was reminiscent of the 2017 Dodgers. They paced the Majors with 108 wins during the regular season and finished eight games above the second-place New York Yankees in the American League East standings.
The two division foes promptly squared off in a highly-anticipated AL Division Series, to which Boston won with relative ease in four games. In order to reach the Fall Classic for the first time since 2013, the Red Sox were next tasked with dethroning the defending AL Champion Houston Astros.
While most figured the matchup to go down to the wire, the Red Sox steamrolled through Houston in five games. The club’s lethal lineup was on display, scoring 29 runs in the series.
Complete 2018 World Series schedule and start times
Game 1: Tuesday, Oct. 23, @ Fenway Park, 5:09 p.m. PT (FOX)
Game 2: Wednesday, Oct. 24, @ Fenway Park, 5:09 p.m. (FOX)
Game 3: Friday, Oct. 26, @ Dodger Stadium, 5:09 p.m. (FOX)
Game 4: Saturday, Oct. 27, @ Dodger Stadium, 5:09 p.m. (FOX)
Game 5*: Sunday, Oct. 28, @ Dodger Stadium, 5:15 p.m. (FOX)
Game 6*: Tuesday, Oct. 30, @ Fenway Park, 5:09 p.m. (FOX)
Game 7*: Wednesday, Oct. 31, @ Fenway Park, 5:09 p.m. (FOX)
*If necessary
