Some A's Say Boston Red Sox Can Win World Series

Walking around the A's clubhouse for the final week of the season, we conducted some end-of-season interviews with a number of players on the roster, and one of the final questions that would be asked is "who is going to win the World Series?"

Of the sample of the clubhouse we asked, only one player mentioned an American League team other than the Boston Red Sox. There were some NL favorites in there, but the Red Sox were the team in the AL that stood out to the guys in green and gold.

The big question that left us with is whether this is a bit of recency bias, since the A's and Red Sox played each other six times in the final month, or if this is a legit take and people should be concerned about Boston in October.

The answer could be both.

Beware of Boston

The first two games that the Red Sox and A's played were at Sutter Health Park on September 8th and 9th, and Boston did something that seemed impossible at that point in time—they shut the A's out in back-to-back games. The last time the A's had been shut out in two consecutive games, it was on June 26 (8-0) in Detroit, and then a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the New York Yankees.

Funnily enough, all three teams ended up qualifying for the postseason. Cleveland also shut the A's out that week, and they too will be playing in October. In fact, five of the six teams to make it to the postseason (excluding Seattle) shut the A's offense down once, but Boston was the only club to do it twice, and the only team in the postseason to do so in the second half.

The A's were one of the better teams in baseball in the second half, which is why that nugget matters. Both the New York Mets and San Francisco Giants also shut the A's out for a game, and neither of them qualified for postseason play. The Pittsburgh Pirates shut the A's down in consecutive days from September 20-21, so the trick to making the postseason was just to not be an NL team.

After dropping the first two games to the Red Sox, the A's ended up finishing out the season series tied up 3-3, but Boston proved to be a tough team to handle for this group down the stretch. While there is recency bias cooked in, the fact that the Red Sox are playing well right now also bodes well for them with the postseason beginning on Tuesday.

One caveat we should note before getting to the player's quotes here is that the postseason field had not been set, so these are non-matchup based responses.

What They Said

The first player to mention the Red Sox as a potential World Series champion was Sean Newcomb, who started off the 2025 season as a Red Sox pitcher, is also from the area and grew up rooting for the club.

"I'm a little biased, but it's Boston for me. That's home. I know how much it means to all of the fans and kids over there. They're definitely in a good spot with momentum right now, and that's always a huge part of the postseason."

For a less biased take, outfielder Carlos Cortes had to give it to Boston as well. "We played really well against them recently, but I think that team's pretty good."

Standout A's starter Jacob Lopez was the other player that said that Boston stood out to him. "I'd have to say Dodgers, but I would like to see Boston. We were just in Fenway, and just seeing that, I think that would be great for all of baseball to have a World Series there. They're just a scrappy team. They know how to put up runs, they pitch and play defense. They do everything really well."