BOSTON
The Boston Red Sox didn’t mind waiting a few days to start their playoffs.
Not after missing them for the past three seasons.
Not after the September collapse that ruined their chances in 2011.
And certainly not after they stumbled to the club’s worst record in 48 years in 2012.
“This was part of the mindset at the end of last year, a strong desire to rewrite what took place,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said Thursday.
The revised edition tied the St. Louis Cardinals for the best record, was the highest scoring team in the majors and turned a toxic clubhouse atmosphere into a fun-loving one that was a big reason the Red Sox had 28 more wins than they did last season.
They’ll try for their first in the playoffs on Friday against the Tampa Bay Rays in the opener of the best-of-five AL division series.
Boston ended its regular season on Sunday then waited for its opponent to be determined.
Tampa Bay had to win three road games to get this far — at Toronto on Sunday to force a tiebreaker for the second AL wild-card spot, at Texas on Monday night in that tiebreaker, and at Cleveland on Wednesday night to advance to the ALDS.
The Rays finished six games behind the Red Sox in the AL East but are on a roll with 10 wins in their last 12 games. And they have star left-handers Matt Moore and David Price ready to go in the first two games at Fenway Park.
Moore (17-4) is 9-1 in his last 13 starts. Price (10-8) is coming off a 5-2, complete-game win against the Rangers in the tiebreaker. In a span of eight days in late July, they combined to go 3-0 against the Red Sox in Boston with each pitching a complete game.
More bad news for the Red Sox: the Rays are 14-2 on the road when Moore starts.
The Red Sox have a pretty good left-hander themselves set for the opener. Jon Lester (15-8) was 5-1 with a 2.22 ERA in his last eight starts and 7-2 with a 2.57 ERA since the All-Star break.
Both teams know each other very well, having met 19 times this season with the Red Sox winning 12.
But Maddon thinks the Rays surge just to reach the ALDS will help them.
“I want to believe the journey we’ve just gone through is going to hopefully relax our hitters a bit,” he said. “So you might see a better offensive ballclub.”
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