Jayson Stark, The Athletic:
"When did you know?" someone asked Boston's president of baseball operations, David Dombrowski. "When did you know that this had a chance to be a World Series team?"
"We were 17-2," Dombrowski replied, without a moment's hesitation. ... "[Y]ou never know how things are going to turn out. But ... you could tell early that this club had a chance to be good."
They were just the fifth team in the last 100 seasons to start 17-2. As half of the previous four found out, 17-2 guarantees you nothing in this sport, other than you get to keep playing.