It was three years to the day Monday that the Red Sox officially defined their lot in life for the 2018 season.
Dave Dombrowski traded for Steve Pearce.
While the Red Sox lost the day after announcing the deal of minor-leaguer Santiago Espinal for Pearce -- with the team's new first baseman managing a pair of hits while hitting cleanup at Yankee Stadium -- the move proved to be a key catalyst in Alex Cora's team's surge.
For the next month, the Red Sox went 20-6 with the right-handed-hitting Pearce proving to be the perfect complement for Mitch Moreland at first. It moved the Sox to five games up over the Yankees on the final day of July after being deadlocked with New York that day Pearce debuted.
Monday, prior to his club's game against the Royals at Fenway Park, Cora reflected on the move.
"It was important because we made a decision early on to stick with Mitch and all of a sudden, we didn't have that right-handed bat," he remembered. "For Dave to get Steve, we talked about it and a guy that knows the division and he hits lefties. The other one was he hit J.A. Happ, too. That was important, the way the season was going. He showed up in Yankee Stadium, the first pitch he hit was a groundball over the third base bag against CC. Then he comes here, he hit the three home runs against the Yankees in August. I think that we did it early, it was really good. We were thinking ahead, the way we were playing. It's not that we were comfortable, but we knew we had a good team. He gave us balance. He was important against righties and lefties at the end. He faced a lot of righties because Mitch was banged up, and he did an amazing job. It sent a message to the group, too. Regardless of how good we were, we needed help and we got it. Him and later on Ian, the situation we were in at second base. Good baseball moves, and obviously Nate. Good baseball moves to make a good team better. The front office and Dave decided to pull the trigger early and he was more than welcome in the clubhouse."
It wasn't the first time in Red Sox history that a late-June served as a message-sender, with the 1986 Sox dealing for Tom Seaver in exchange for Steve Lyons on June 29.
As for this year's team, there would seem to be a similar need as the one they possessed in 2018, with a left-handed-hitting complement to first baseman Bobby Dalbec most likely serving as a priority heading into the July 31 trade deadline.