All hail the Boston Red Sox, winners of 106 games and counting!

With Monday’s win these Red Sox have eclipsed teams led by the likes of Tris Speaker and “Smoky Joe” Wood (105 wins in 1912), Ted Williams and Boo Ferris (104 in 1946) and Duffy Lewis and (gulp) Babe Ruth (101 in 1915) – the only others in Red Sox history to top the century mark.

Now we celebrate Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Chris Sale and David Price.

Or do we?

What does winning more regular-season games than any other Red Sox team in history truly get you? A bull’s-eye on your back come playoff time, for one.

That seems to be the overwhelming thought surrounding the Red Sox with a playoff date in October on the horizon. Ever since the team shot out of Fort Myers and began piling up wins in the cold, raw days of April, the specter of a 100-win season seemed possible. There were even dreams of eclipsing the all-time regular season win record of 116 set by the Seattle Mariners in 2001.

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But any mention of those Mariners should give fans reason to pause. Neither of the two teams with the highest win total in major league history – those Mariners and the 1906 Cubs – won the World Series. That’s a fate no team wants to be saddled with.

“I tell you what, when you get to the postseason, there’s a whole lotta pressure,” former Yankees manager Joe Torre told Newsday this summer. “Seattle won 116 games, but you have to remind people they did. They won their division but they didn’t beat us.”

There’s the rub with any historic regular season. It’s great to win 106 games but a division series loss to the Yankees or the Oakland A’s would be tough to swallow. So would really anything short of at least a spot in the World Series for the Red Sox.

According to ESPN, 97 teams have won 100 or more games in the World Series era (since 1903, excluding 1904 when the Series wasn’t played). Just 36 of those teams (37 percent) went on to win the World Series.

The 1912 Red Sox won the World Series, as Smoky Joe outdueled New York Giants ace Christy Mathewson in the decisive game. But the 1946 Sox famously lost to the St. Louis Cardinals in Game 7 when Enos Slaughter raced around from first base for the winning run after Johnny Pesky may have held a relay throw an instant too long.

What fate lies ahead for the 2018 Red Sox?

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The events of this season send a conflicting, confusing message.

Maybe it’s best to trace how Manager Alex Cora’s debut season unfolded so spectacularly.

A blazing opening few weeks jump-started everyone’s hopes. Any team that wins 17 of its first 19 builds oodles of confidence.

A superb middle-of-the season stretch from Betts and Martinez, two of the leading candidates for the American League MVP award, further buoyed the Sox.

A four-game Fenway Park sweep of the Yankees in the first week of August boosted Boston’s A.L. East lead to a commanding 91/2 games. The race never grew closer than six games the rest of the way.

Maybe the biggest factor in all this winning was a really, really bad American League. Like historically bad. The Orioles (45-111) and Royals (54-102) sailed past 100 losses. The White Sox and Tigers were awful as well.

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It’s likely that the hard-luck baseball fans of Seattle still find room in their hearts to celebrate their record-setting 2001 team. That’s the fate of a franchise that’s never even been to a World Series.

There is no such luck ahead for these Red Sox. This regular season is special and will always be remembered in the record books no matter what unfolds in October. But without a World Series victory, or at least a spot in the Fall Classic, all those memories will quickly be erased from the minds of Sox fans.

The players seem to know the deal here. After three championships in the last 14 seasons and with a massive, $220-million payroll, the Red Sox were built with a championship-or-bust mentality. Or as Betts said amid the celebration in the clubhouse at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, “We haven’t won anything yet. Well, we haven’t won what we want to win yet.”

So can Cora juggle his leaky bullpen and win 11 games with postseason pressure? Is Sale healthy enough to be a playoff ace? Will Betts and Martinez catch fire together again? Is Price going to implode at the worst time?

Those are questions built for October. For now, savor the greatest regular season in Red Sox history.


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