The Boston Red Sox clinched the 2018 World Series Sunday night after defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-1 in the best-of-seven series. It's their fourth World Series title in 15 years and ninth overall. The champions are bringing home more than the Commissioner's Trophy. They will also earn a sizable bonus. All players who compete in the postseason receive a playoff bonus, but the amount depends on how far their team advances. The further they make it, the bigger the share they earn. In 2017, players earned a record $84.5 million from postseason bonuses, and the winning Houston Astros team split a record $30.4 million. The World Series runner-up, the Los Angeles Dodgers, split $20.3 million. "The players' pool" — which is divided among the 10 postseason clubs — "is formed from 50 percent of the gate receipts from the Wild Card Games; 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first three games of the Division Series; 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first four games of the League Championship Series; and 60 percent of the gate receipts from the first four games of the World Series," according to the MLB. It's too soon to tell how big the postseason pot will be this year, but both the Red Sox and Dodgers can expect a hefty bonus. Here's a breakdown of the percentage of the pool that goes to each team: World Series Champion: 36 percent World Series Runner-Up: 24 percent League Championship Series Runners-Up (2): 24 percent (12 percent each) Division Series Runners-Up (4): 13 percent (3.2 percent each) Wild Card Game Runners-Up (2): 3 percent (1.5 percent each)<doc-sep>The Boston Red Sox have secured their spot in the 2018 World Series. Boston punched its ticket in Game 5 of the American League Championship Series as starter David Price recorded his first postseason win. The victory came one night after a dramatic game that included a controversial fan interference call and a stunning ninth inning diving catch from outfielder Andrew Benintendi. This season the Red Sox return to the Fall Classic for the first time since 2013. So how many times have the Red Sox won the World Series? Boston has eight World Series titles. After winning their first championship in 1903 and second in 1912, star slugger Babe Ruth arrived in Boston in 1914. Ruth helped the Red Sox win three titles in 1915, 1916 and 1918 before he was traded to the rival New York Yankees in 1919. After an 86-year old Curse of the Bambino hung over the Red Sox, Boston finally won another championship in 2004 by sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals. The Red Sox won their second World Series in four years by sweeping the Colorado Rockies in 2007. St. Louis and Boston met up again in the 2013 World Series. The Red Sox won the Fall Classic in six games, marking the first World Series title clinched at Fenway Park since 1918.<doc-sep>LOS ANGELES -- With their five-game triumph over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2018 World Series, the Boston Red Sox have now won four titles in the last 14 years. Conveniently for these purposes, all of those titles have occurred within the current century -- i.e., the 21st Century. Now here's an updated look at which teams have won titles (and how many) since Jan. 1, 2001 (yes, the current century began with 2001, not 2000): So the Sox's win in 2018 breaks that preexisting tie with the Giants. They now stand alone atop the heap with four rings. On those grounds alone you could argue that, yes, they're the team of the 21st century (thus far). Of course, this is baseball, and it's perfectly possible for a merely good team to get hot in October, benefit from the vagaries of the sport, and wind up champs despite an otherwise lacking resume. To address that matter, let's look at the five-best regular season winning percentages from 2001 through 2018: Rank Team Cumulative win percentage, 2001-18 1. Yankees .582 2. Cardinals .558 3. Red Sox .557 4. Dodgers .545 5. Angels .538 Yep, there are the Red Sox in second place behind the Yankees. So that's an edge for Boston's blood rivals, but there's really no comparing the two bodies of work when you consider that the Red Sox now have four times as many championships during the century in question. As for the Giants, they're in eight place -- i.e., too low to merit the bother of listing them. The last century, of course, belonged to those Yankees, who won 26 World Series during that particular span of 100 years (98 years, to be precise, since the first World Series as we think of it was in 1903). The Red Sox in the 21st century are now on pace for 22 titles (this scribe will absolutely be around to see if they get there), so they'll need to up the clip just slightly if they're going have a better century this time around than the Yankees did last time around. As for the here and now, though, the Red Sox -- fully 18 percent of the way through the 21st century -- lord over all they survey, so long as all they are surveying is MLB since 2001. Now, though, let's talk about those "Yankees suck" chants broke out among the many Red Sox fans at Game 5 in Dodger Stadium both during the game and after the trophy was theirs. This is not the posture of the greatest team of the current century. This is "woebegone little brother" stuff. Part of the solemn responsibilities that go with "team of the century" laurels is not acknowledging those positioned on the lower rungs. No it's time for the manifestly inferior Yankees to say you suck in defiance of all evidence, as you have done to them for lo these many years. Tamper with the natural order at your own peril, Red Sox. You team of the century, you.<doc-sep>
LOS ANGELES -- What in the name of Ted Williams has happened to the Boston Red Sox? The franchise that was cursed for more than eight decades has once again staked its claim as the premier franchise in baseball. Boston put the wraps on a dominating season with a 5-1 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday in Game 5 of the World Series. The Red Sox secured their first title since 2013 -- a blink of the eye on the Boston-baseball time scale -- and fourth in 15 years. Boston has now won nine titles in franchise history, tied for third-most of all big league teams. The Red Sox beat teams in every possible way this season, and in the clincher, Boston used the long ball to finish the Dodgers for good. Steve Pearce hit a two-run homer in the first inning off Clayton Kershaw and added a solo shot in the eighth off Pedro Baez. Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez added solo shots in the sixth and seventh. The homers were more than enough in back of a lights-out David Price, who rewrote his postseason narrative once and for all. Price dazzled the Dodgers for seven innings for his third win this postseason. The 2018 Red Sox have stated a pretty solid case as being the best team in franchise history. Their 108 wins set a team record. Their plus-229 run differential matched the 1949 Red Sox, who didn't win a title, for the second-best in team history. The record, plus-255, was set by the 1912 Red Sox team that won 105 games and beat the New York Giants in seven games (plus a tie) in the World Series. But what really sets the Red Sox apart is their dominance of the rest of the field in this year's playoffs. This was a loaded bracket, with the American League in particular being more top-heavy with power teams than any circuit in recent memory. The National League was more egalitarian, but the Dodgers featured as much talent as any AL team and had the pedigree of six straight division titles working for them. Despite all of this, the Red Sox plowed through three opponents -- the hated Yankees, the defending-champion Astros and the mighty Dodgers -- who combined to win 295 games during the regular season. The final series totals -- 3-1, 4-1 and 4-1 -- almost read like a peak-Pete Sampras score from a Wimbledon final. The Red Sox did in the postseason what they had been doing all year: They mashed at the plate and caught the ball in the field. Boston combined the power and patience of a three-true-outcomes (home run/strikeout/walk) team with the situational excellence of a traditional sequential offense. The most stark evidence of this was Boston's two-out production, which accounted for 45 of its 84 runs during October.