BOSTON — The cleats on Steve Pearce’s gray New Balance model 4040v4 baseball shoe are about 1.27 centimeters long. It is roughly that distance by which the New York Yankees’ season ended last year in the Bronx.
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That fraction of an inch is what ultimately separated the Boston Red Sox from the Yankees in their divisional playoff series, which Boston won in four games. If Pearce had not anchored the toe of his right foot to first base, as he did, if the plastic cleats on the bottom of his shoe were a tiny bit shorter, or if the throw to him was slightly more off target, the Yankees might have won Game 4 and carried a planeload of momentum into a do-or-die Game 5 at Fenway Park, potentially changing the course of the postseason.