Baseball-Reference has the major league splits for the results of AB's where the batter swung at the first pitch vs. took the first pitch:
Swung at it: 270/295/449 = 743 OPS
Took it: 249/336/416 = 752 OPS
Personally I'm just tired of it and would love not to hear about it any more.
From a PR standpoint at least, Price & Farrell should have realized they were dealing with a very popular figure and apologized.
Now let's just move on from it.
The last time the Red Sox won consecutive AL pennants, of course, was 1915-1916.
2016-2017 is the only time they've ever won division titles two years in a row.