World Series (2018)

Lore & Background

The Series was televised in the United States on Fox. Steve Pearce won the World Series Most Valuable Player Award, while Alex Cora became the fifth first-season manager and first manager from Puerto Rico to win the World Series. The Series, as well as the 2025 World Series, were both notable for their third games that lasted 18 innings, a World Series record.

Reader's Guide

The Boston Red Sox' most recent World Series appearance was their 2013 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. The Los Angeles Dodgers, who last won a World Series in 1988 over the Oakland Athletics, made their second consecutive appearance, after losing to the Houston Astros in 2017. The two franchises faced each other in the 1916 World Series; the Red Sox won the series in five games against the then-Brooklyn Robins. With a distance of 2,593 miles between Dodger Stadium and Fenway Park, this is the furthest distance between the home stadiums of two World Series teams, a record only breakable if the San Francisco Giants play the Red Sox (2,696 miles between Oracle Park and Fenway Park) or the Miami Marlins play the Seattle Mariners (2,732 miles between LoanDepot Park and T-Mobile Park).

The 2018 World Series was the first since to feature two teams which had also reached the postseason in the prior year.

Did You Know?

• Red Sox manager Alex Cora and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts were teammates on the Dodgers in 2002, 2003, and 2004.
• Both managers played and won a World Series championship with Boston—Roberts in 2004 and Cora in 2007.
• This was the first World Series with two managers of color; additionally, both managers were born outside the contiguous United States, as Cora was born in Puerto Rico and Roberts in Japan.
• The Dodgers trade deadline acquisition Manny Machado had a long history with the Red Sox, including a controversial slide that injured Dustin Pedroia in 2017.