In need of October reboot
Cora dismisses sloppy efforts
The price for a ticket to watch baseball at Fenway Park is about to soar once the playoffs begin here Friday.
The 107-win Red Sox should strongly consider boosting their own effort by then.
And while few expect the Sox will actually start their Division Series by playing the same brand of sloppy, uninspired, off-key and out-of-character baseball like they have the past two days against the Yankees, they have not done themselves any favors so far this weekend.
The freshness date on the “best team in baseball” expires in today’s finale.
The Red Sox no longer have the luxury of any more lackadaisical efforts like these.
After watching the Yankees cuff around the Red Sox for the second day in a row yesterday, it’s super easy to dismiss the sloppiness in their 8-5 loss. Two errors, 11 stranded baserunners and 13 hits allowed.
This is what happens, you can rationalize, after a team clinches a division and then postseason homefield advantage before their despised rivals come to town to play an essentially meaningless end-of-season series.
And hey, it’s no big deal that the Red Sox could end their season today with a loss that would give them their first four-game losing streak of the season.
None of these developments, by themselves or all together, are the mark of a 107-win team — at least, that’s what manager Alex Cora will tell you.
“If we win eight of 10, people will say it doesn’t count, if we lose seven of 10, people will say it doesn’t count — we’re going to be 0-0 next week,” said Cora. “We’re still going to have four days off and we don’t have to play Wednesday (in the AL wild card game) — it really doesn’t matter. Just take a look at the whole season. It’s 107 (wins) and that’s pretty good. It’s not that we’re going through the motions but we’re taking care of our players and they get what they need and we’ll be ready for October.”
This Friday will be the Red Sox’ first stab at winning the 11 games they need in October to secure their ultimate prize, the World Series.
This is a Red Sox team that enters Game 1 with a pitcher, Chris Sale, plagued by a significant drop in velocity over his last few starts and in Game 2 displays a pitcher, David Price, with a deserved reputation for being a really bad postseason starter.
The Red Sox have risen to the occasion time and time again this season, so the fact that they did not against the Yankees these last two days is not definitive proof they never will again.
But they need both Sale and Price and every single hitter and defender to raise their level of play beginning on Friday.
That’s what happens with great teams.
That’s what has to happen with the Red Sox before they can be called a great team.
“I’ve seen it first-hand — for how great it was last year (with the Astros), ’07, Josh Beckett, I’ve never seen anything like that, him going through the Angels and the Indians and the Rockies the way he did,” said Cora about the 1.20 ERA and 35 strikeouts and two walks Beckett compiled in his four starts that October. “Mentally he was somewhere else. That was impressive. I do feel that there are guys, they get locked in for a while in October mentally. They act differently. They see things that you probably don’t see during the regular season and they execute better than in the regular season.”
And that’s where the history lesson ends and the test for this Red Sox team begins.
With all their question marks, can the Red Sox get not just one, but two cases of a player executing better when the meaning of games skyrockets?
“In our case Sale threw the ball great for a long period of time,” said Cora. “He gets hurt and David was great, too. It would be fun for us if the two can pitch to their abilities together for a month.”
Cora spoke yesterday about how he has not had to call many team meetings this year. When there’s a message he needs to get across, he’ll usually sit in on a hitters’ meeting at the start of a series and send it out then.
So far, the results speak for themselves.
“From Day 1 we’ve been talking about it, I told them don’t be afraid to be talking about the World Series — every team in the big leagues that’s their goal so why be polite or humble about it,” said Cora. “That’s their goal. We’ve been in a good mindset for a while, since February and I don’t think that is going to change in October. We know we are going to face some good teams but we believe in what we have and we believe we have a good team, too. I can’t wait for Oct. 5.”
Same with us, Alex. Same with us.