Cora manages like MVP
Sox boss makes all the right moves in series win
NEW YORK — There is no MVP award for the Division Series.
But Alex Cora won it anyway. In overseeing the Red Sox’ first successful attempt to win a postseason series in their last three seasons, the rookie manager made the big- ger, bolder and best moves and he pulled all the right strings to lead his team to a convincing four-game victory over the Yankees in once hostile but now docile Yankee Stadium after a clinching 4-3 victory. They now have the carefulwhat-you-wish-for honor of facing the Astros in the ALCS, but let’s give the clubbies time to wash the beer and champagne out of their uniforms before diving too deeply into that matchup.
Still, given how successfully Cora navigated the Sox to three wins in four tries against a dangerous Yankees team, you’d have to give the Red Sox a bit more of a fighting chance in that seven games than it looks like they have.
Last night’s game featured Cora at his very best. Nothing stood for his overall aggressive managerial style than his decision to turn to Game 5 starter Chris Sale for the eighth inning with the Sox holding a 4-1 lead.
Before the game, Cora had been very outspoken about there was just a “very slim” chance he would use Sale, yet there was the lanky lefty trotting in from the bullpen to start the eighth, and three batters later, trotting into the dugout for high five’s all around.
The lineup that Cora put together in Game 4?
Well, it didn’t have Brock Holt in it, a statement in itself. All Holt did the night before was complete the first postseason cycle in history, yet Cora went back to Ian Kinsler, who, of course, drove in the second run of the game.
Rick Porcello was lights-out, and his pitch count was only at 65 after five innings when Cora figured his time was up. The big right-handed boppers, Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton, were coming up and Cora didn’t like the odds of them coming up short the third time around against Porcello. He turned to his primary set-up man Matt Barnes, and Barnes was Sale-like: three up, three down. Judge and Stanton each grounded out.
Ryan Brasier was the choice in inning seven and he, too, did his job, retiring all three batters.
What about having Porcello on the mound in the first place? He was supposed to be the Game 3 starter but given that Cora went to Porcello in Game 1 for twothirds of a successful inning, he figured Nathan Eovaldi could do the job. His instincts, based on sound logic and Eovaldi’s track record of success against the Yankees, paid off as Eovaldi completely suppressed the Yankees in Game 3.
That victory featured a rejiggered lineup. Cora didn’t like the lack of offense and the poor approach from the lineup in Game 2 especially, so he inserted three new starters: Holt, Rafael Devers at third base and Christina Vazquez as catcher. All three contributed in every way in that lopsided 16-1 victory.
At Sunday’s workout here, both Xander Bogaerts and Barnes spoke effusively of Cora, about how easygoing and trusting he is, the same after defeat or victory.
Full credit should always go to the talent on the field, of course, but the cover and support Cora provides is a big, big differencemaker.
There were plenty of other difference makers this year. JD Martinez, replacing Big Papi as the thunderbolt and lightning, was a very, very frightening presence in the lineup with his 43 homers and 130 RBI.
Mookie Betts? Yep, he played a huge role, too.
Sale, Bogaerts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Andrew Benintendi — lots and lots of contributors and talent to go around in the Red Sox clubhouse.
But the guy who ran the show, Cora, was new guy at the very top as the team reached 108 regular season wins.
And when the stakes were at the highest, when the team needed to show the regular season was no fluke and no different than the two prior AL East winning Red Sox teams that failed to win a series, Cora came through and brought them to and past their first true test.