Tara Sullivan
Peter Abraham
ON BASEBALLSports
THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2019 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/SPORTSC
TVHIGHLIGHTS
NHL:Lightning-Bruins, 7 p.m., NESN
ALCS:Astros-Yankees, 8:08 p.m., FS1
NFL:Chiefs-Broncos, 8:20 p.m., Fox, NFL
Listings,C6
Wait pays off for Zimmerman
INSIDE Veteran headed to first World Series after 15 seasons.C2BARRY CHIN/GLOBE STAFFWith a thin receiving corps and other issues on offense, the Patriots might be wise to put the load on their defense instead of QB Tom Brady.
Krejci questionable for Lightning
Bruins center has been slowed by upper-body injury.C5QB Grosel impresses BC teammates
Walk-on-turned-starter ‘won over’ team in the spring.C6PATRIOTS
ATJETS
Monday,
8:15 p.m.,
ESPN, Ch. 5Nationals took a chance at deadline — and it paid off
NEW YORK — The Red Sox season end-
ed on Sept. 29 when Mookie Betts kept on
running and scored from first base on a sin-
gle to right field in the bottom of the ninth
inning against the inept Baltimore Orioles.But for all practical purposes, the season
ended late in the afternoon on July 31 when
the Sox decided not to make any trades to
improve their worn-down pitching staff be-
fore the deadline hit.
The Sox were 59-49 at the time, nine
games out of first place but only 2½ games
behind the Athletics in the American
League wild-card race with 54 games toplay.
Sox manager Alex Cora said in the days
leading up to the deadline that he thoughtthere would be additions. The players felt
the same way.
But it didn’t happen.“The club here needs to play better on a
consistent basis. That’s the way I look at it,”
president of baseball operations Dave Dom-
browski said at the time.
As a rallying cry, it wasn’t exactly Win-
ston Churchill. The Sox reacted by losing
the game that night and the five games that
followed. Dombrowski was fired in Septem-
ONBASEBALL,PageC2Dan Shaughnessy
Even having
a bad offseason
We interrupt your regularly scheduled
programming of Patriots, Bruins, Celtics,
and well-deserved LeBron bashing to re-
mind you that the stove glows dimly on
Jersey Street.
As the baseball playoffs keep remind-
ing us, the Red Sox — despite having the
top payroll in baseball — are not part of
October ball for the first time since 2015.
In the absence of postseason games, bad news seems to
visit Fenway Park regularly. Ticket prices are up. NESN rat-
ings are way down. And nobody seems to want the once-
coveted job of Red Sox general manager.
SHAUGHNESSY,PageC2
ANDREW FRIEDMAN
DODGERSPRES.OFBASEBALLOPS
Set to re-sign with the Dodgers
in the next couple of daysCHRIS ANTONETTI
INDIANSPRES.OFBASEBALLOPS
In his current role since 2015MIKE HAZEN
D’BACKSVPANDGENERALMANAGER
Re-signed with D’Backs in September AP PHOTOSRed Sox can learn
from their past
By Alex Speier
GLOBE STAFF
Mythology features the terrifying Hydra in different
ways, but all point to the same conclusion: A multiheaded
monster is typically bad news, something best slain. Yet for
the second time this century, the Red Sox have entrusted the
direction of their organization on an interim basis to just
such a creature.
Since the (literally) unceremonial firing of Dave Dom-
browski Sept. 8, four front office members have overseen
the baseball operations department: assistant general man-
agers Brian O’Halloran, Eddie Romero, and Zack Scott, and
senior vice president Raquel Ferreira.
That structure serves as something of an echo, a remind-
er of one of the more unsettled and confusing times for the
franchise during its four-championship run. In 2005, when
SPEIER,PageC3Lead with defense
Brady shouldn’t try to do too much
with depleted Patriots offense
Bill Belichick has
always had a
knack for timing,
another recent
example coming
last Thursday
night, after his
Patriots beat the
Giants to im-
prove to 6-0. That’s when the coach
surprised his quarterback with the
game ball, recognition Belichick tiedin part to Brady’s latest statistical
milestone, passing Peyton Manning
for second place all-time in passing
yardage.
As Belichick himself would later
point out, the 42-year-old Brady could
easily garner a game ball a week, given
the way he breaks records with regu-
larity. So it’s natural to wonder: Why
now?
Because this year, Brady deserves
all the trophies. And with one timely
acknowledgment of the difficult posi-
tion Brady is in amid the ragtag cast of
SULLIVAN,PageC4Gary Washburn
ONBASKETBALLStating
their
cases
Celtics rookies make
push for roster spots
When the Celtics left seven regu-
lar players back in Boston for their
preseason finale against the Cleve-
land Cavaliers on Tuesday night, it
appeared the game would lack sig-
nificance.
After all, the Celtics would field a
team filled with reserves, free
agents, players headed for G-League
Maine, and others headed overseas.
But the Celtics found their first visit
to the renamed Rocket Mortgage
FieldHouse well worth it.
The backcourt of Carsen Edwards
and Tremont Waters combined for
54 points in the Celtics’ 118-95 win,
with Edwards making the headlines
with eight 3-pointers in a 5:06 span
of the third quarter while Waters
continually gashed Cleveland’s de-
fense with jumpers and driving
layups.
General manager Danny Ainge
and coach Brad Stevens have repeat-
edly lauded this rookie class of Ed-
wards, Grant Williams, Romeo
Langford, and Waters, but it appears
Edwards and Waters are more pre-
pared to contribute this season than
initially believed.
Waters is signed to a two-way
contract but he has been impressive
during the preseason, and Tuesday
he got the best of his matchup with
ONBASKETBALL,PageC4RON SCHWANE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rookie guard Carsen Edwards
scored 26 points in the third
quarter in the Celtics’ win
Tuesday over the Cavaliers.Tom Brady’sinconsistent performances,
despite the Patriots’ 6-0 record, show the
team can win on the back of its defense1209060300150
Week 1 Week 2Week 3Passer rating
Passer rating league rankWeek 49 th
4 th13 th32 nd10 th14 thWeek 5Week 6124 .9 124. 7103. 945. 9106. 188. 9º ALCS Game 4 moved to Thursday. C2