Here are the Red Sox's best regular seasons

What qualifies a baseball team as a juggernaut?

Well, for starters, a season of 100 wins or more. The Red Sox have had four such seasons in club history and another bittersweet season in which they just missed that mark -- and the postseason.

Here is a look at the best seasons in Red Sox history by win total.

1. 2018
Record: 108-54

After winning back-to-back division titles only to bow out in the Division Series on both occasions, the Red Sox brought in a new manager in Alex Cora to get them over the hump in ’18. And did he ever. Playing with a swagger from the moment they stepped on the field together, the ’18 Sox got off to a scintillating start, winning 17 of their first 19 games. There wasn’t much dropoff from there. Mookie Betts won the American League’s Most Valuable Player Award and he put on a clinic in every facet of the game. J.D. Martinez was just as much of a force and raked throughout the season. The starting rotation had two aces in Chris Sale and David Price, and a lockdown closer in Craig Kimbrel.

Once the Red Sox got to October, they continued to maul their opponents, going 11-3 against the Yankees, Astros and Dodgers while losing just one game in all three series. The World Series title was the third in a span of 15 seasons for Boston. This, after going 86 years without winning a World series.

2. 1912
Record: 105-47

What a team. Consider that they held the win record for a Sox team for 106 years, even though teams started playing a 162-game season in 1961. The star of the team was ace righty Smoky Joe Wood, who went 34-5 with a 1.91 ERA in 38 starts. Buck O’Brien and Hugh Bedient both checked in with 20-win seasons. Tris Speaker proved why he was one of the dominant offensive players of his -- or any -- era, slashing .383/.464/.567 with 90 RBIs, 52 stolen bases and an OPS-plus of 190. The ’12 Sox beat the New York Giants in the World Series in eight games. Yes, eight games. This is due to the fact that Game 2 was an 11-inning tie that was called because of darkness.

3. 1946
Record: 104-50

This was a revered squad led by the legendary “Teammates,” as Ted Williams, Bobby Doerr, Johnny Pesky and Dom DiMaggio were dubbed in a brilliant book by David Halberstam. Williams was the center of the Red Sox universe in these days, and he fueled his team to the AL pennant with a glittering line of .342/.497/.667 to go with 38 homers and 123 RBIs. Playing in the only World Series of his legendary career, Williams struggled (5-for-30) as the Sox lost in seven games to the Cardinals. In some pure bad luck, Williams injured his right elbow in an exhibition game against traveling All-Stars which was put together to help the Red Sox avoid getting rusty before the World Series.

4. 1915
Record: 101-50

Babe Ruth won the first of his seven World Series titles as an ace lefty. In the regular season, he went 18-8 with a 2.44 ERA. You might have heard that he could hit a little also. Ruth had a .952 OPS in 103 plate appearances. As usual, Speaker was a force that season. The starting rotation was loaded, as Rube Foster, Ernie Shore, Dutch Leonard, and Smoky Joe Wood joined Ruth with 15 wins or more. After losing Game 1 of the World Series to the Phillies, the Red Sox won the next four games -- each by one run -- to win it all.

5. 1978
Record: 99-64

This is probably the most bittersweet season in Red Sox history. For most of the summer, this team was absolutely loaded, thanks to a high-powered lineup that included Hall of Famers Jim Rice, Carl Yastrzemski and Carlton Fisk to go along with stud players like Fred Lynn and Dwight Evans. Dennis Eckersley, another Hall of Famer, led the pitching staff with 20 wins. By July 19, the Sox were an eye-popping 62-28. At that time, the Yankees were 14 games behind their rivals. For the rest of the regular season, Boston went 37-36. The Yankees went 52-21 over that same stretch.

You do the math. The teams had to settle the AL East in a one-game playoff at sunny Fenway Park on Oct. 2. Yaz went deep against Ron Guidry to give the Sox the early lead. But you could hear a pin drop in Fenway when light-hitting Bucky Dent took Mike Torrez over the Monster for a three-run shot that made it 3-2 Yankees with two outs in the seventh. Reggie Jackson swelled New York’s lead to 5-2 with a monster homer against Bob Stanley. But the Red Sox kept fighting and had the tying run on third with two outs in the ninth and Yaz at the plate. The all-time classic game ended with the venerable captain popping to third against Goose Gossage. The Yankees went on to win the World Series. Many think the Red Sox would have if they could have just gotten by New York.

Best of the rest

There are plenty of other special Red Sox teams that didn’t crack that top five. The 2004 “Idiots” squad went 98-64 and made history in October, becoming the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a postseason series. And it happened against the Yankees, which helped avenge 1978. Boston swept the Cardinals in the World Series for the club’s first title since 1918 … The “Boston Strong” team of bearded wonders in 2013 won 97 games in the regular season led by the pitching trio of Jon Lester, John Lackey and Koji Uehara and the hitting contributions from David Ortiz, Dustin Pedroia, Shane Victorino and Mike Napoli. They again beat the Cardinals in the World Series, this time in six games … The 1977 squad was a terror offensively, bashing 213 homers, a club record that stood until 2003. They finished 97-64, but that wasn’t enough to beat the Yankees in the AL East … The 2007 Red Sox lacked the drama of ’04 and ’13, but what made them special was their wire-to-wire dominance that ended with a World Series sweep of the Rockies … The only other Red Sox teams in history to win over 95 games? The 1948 and ’49 squads both won 96 games as Williams just missed out on getting back to the Fall Classic.