Sox win 3rd AL East title in 10 seasons

NEW YORK — The joy was in all corners of the visitors’ clubhouse on Wednesday night at Yankee Stadium, and it had everything to do with the journeys — both individual and collective.

The Red Sox were American League East champions after two consecutive last-place finishes.

“This never gets old,” said Red Sox owner John Henry. “We’ve got to stop doing this worst-to-first thing. It’s a roller coaster.”

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This year, the roller coaster went in the direction of thrilling. The division title was official once the Orioles came back to beat the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. At that point, the Red Sox were still on the field and leading by three against the Yankees.

If you thought the celebration would be subdued because it came after a 5-3 walk-off loss to the Yankees, it would be to lose sight of all it took for Boston to get to this point.

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The Red Sox’s 22-game winner encapsulated the struggles several of his teammates went through to get to this point. On July 1, 2015, Rick Porcello had a 6.08 ERA.

But that was far from his mind on this night.

“It just feels good,” Porcello said. “Baseball is a tough game. You go through a lot of ups and downs. At one moment you’re extremely confident, another moment you’re questioning yourself. It’s part of the game and it’s part of what you go through. You can’t take it personally. You can’t let emotion come into it too much, but it sure as hell feels good.”

Clay Buchholz could relate. The third-longest tenured player on the team behind David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia, the righty lost his spot in the rotation three different times this season. But he finished the regular season …

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