The Red Sox are looking for that one missing piece, a right-handed batter. Can one player be the difference between getting into the post-season and not?

In previous Red Sox World Series years, one added batter may have made all the difference. Will it now?

In 1986, the Red Sox got Dave Henderson from the Mariners.  In ALCS game 5, down 3 games to 1 and facing elimination, Henderson’s 2 out 2 run homer in the top of the 9^th of game 5 tied the game and won it with a sacrifice fly in the 11^th, and the Red Sox subsequently went to the World Series. Despite Henderson hitting .400 with 2 home runs, the Sox fell to the Mets.

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In 2004, the trading away of at the time, perennial all-star Nomar Garciaparra for Orlando Cabrera seemed like a bad trade, but Cabrera learned to take advantage of the Green Monster in left and hit .294 for the season, .379 in the ALCS against the Yankees, and helped win the World Series for Boston for the first time in 86 years.

In August 2007, free agent Bobby Kielty signed and ended the season with the deciding run, a pinch-hit home run in the World Series against Colorado in game 4.

In 2018, the Red Sox found Steve Pearce at the trading deadline, getting him and cash(!)  from the Blue Jays for minor league prospect, Santiago Espinal. 

Pearce had a .300+ BA, .400 OBP and .500+ slugging line against left handed pitchers that year and provided the right-handed half of the 1^st base platoon with Mitch Moreland, though he also played in the corner outfield spots.  Climaxing with 3 home runs and 8 RBIs in a 5-game Fall Classic series, Steve Pearce was the World Series MVP.

Who will be this year’s Steve Pearce, Dave Henderson, Bobby Kielty, or Orlando Cabrera?