As the 2021 Major League Baseball playoffs were getting underway last week, the general consensus on the Boston Red Sox was that they were just lucky to be there and, accordingly, that their stay would be brief.
The Red Sox themselves, however, have never been under any obligation to cooperate with outside prognostications. And so far, they aren't.
They surely didn't when they dispatched the favored New York Yankees in the American League Wild Card Game. After pulling off an even more shocking upset over the 100-win Tampa Bay Rays in the American League Division Series, they now find themselves running hot and needing just four more wins to get to the World Series.