Words in his defense: Sox stick by Nunez
The strength of the Red Sox’ record-setting regular season may have been their bats, but it has become clear they value their defense just as much to begin the playoffs.
Exhibit A: Manager Alex Cora opted to start Eduardo Nunez over Rafael Devers at third base last night for Game 2 of the Division Series at Fenway.
Nunez started at third in the Red Sox’ Game 1 win against the Yankees, and Cora said before the series began Devers was likely to start Game 2, but the manager changed his mind. The reason? With left-handed David Price on the mound, Cora trusted Nunez’ glove and arm more on the hot corner.
“With David on the mound with those righties, there’s a lot of ground balls hit to that side of the infield,” Cora said. “And although we feel good about Rafy with his range and everything, throughout the season he wasn’t consistent making the routine play. So in the end we decided to go with (Nunez) at third base, because we feel he’s been the better defensive player.
“Metrics-wise you can look at the numbers. It may not show you that way, but we do feel he can make the routine play.”
Devers has more offensive upside and potential, and he also showed that the October spotlight wasn’t too big for him last year. At the age of 20, Devers hit two homers during last year’s Division Series against Houston.
But Devers clearly still has a lot of room to grow defensively. He committed 24 errors in 116 games this season, which was the most among qualified third basemen, and his .926 fielding percentage was the worst in the majors by 22 percentage points. There was a time this season when there were concerns over Nunez’ defense, which was likely in part to his injured knee, but those questions have long dissipated.
And as Cora noted, there’s not much of a difference in their offensive numbers. Nunez actually has better numbers against both righties and lefties, giving him an edge in a platoon, even if the lefthanded Devers would have been facing a right-handed Masahiro Tanaka last night.
“We’ve got our numbers and I mean, offensively (Devers has) been swinging the bat well, but as far as what we have, it’s not like a big difference the way Noonie is swinging the bat,” Cora said. “He’s been putting up good atbats. Tanaka, reverse splits but not that much. Actually righties are hitting better. Then obviously we feel pretty good about (Nunez) at third base. I know the kid has more range and he can make the great play, but there’s something with the routine play that throughout the season, we didn’t see it obviously.”
Sandy Leon was also back in the lineup last night after doing an outstanding job behind the plate in Game 1. Several times, as the Yankees gradually crept loser, Leon was forced to block pitches in the dirt from getting away during some pressure moments.
Chris Sale acknowledged the “beating” Leon took throughout the night from his play defensively, and even Cora marveled at how the catcher was able to block a pitch and still keep the ball close at hand, like he did in the seventh inning while catching Matt Barnes.
Cora is prioritizing his defensive strengths, at least early on in these playoffs.
“There’s a lot that goes on, but I mean, that was impressive (Friday),” Cora said. “I mean, you can say he saved the game in that inning. There was one that, I mean, that was amazing. His ability to slow down the game when everything is going so fast, I’m not saying Christian (Vazquez) and Blake (Swihart) they don’t do it, but he’s been great for us.
“You guys saw what happened yesterday offensively, kind of like, what we have in mind. We don’t do that often, but if we have to do it, we’ll do it. We got two shots with men in scoring position, so I think it was good, you know . ... But, right now, his value is defense.”