Nunez ready in a pinch
A day after hitting a pinchhit home run in the World Series, Eduardo Nunez found himself back on the bench.
That’s how Alex Cora has done it all postseason.
A good game Tuesday night guaranteed nothing yesterday, and with that attitude Cora has continued to play the matchups and ignore recent performance.
Rafael Devers was back in the lineup at third base for Game 2 against another Dodger lefty, Hyun-Jin Ryu.
“It’s a tough team to match up,” Cora said. “And if you don’t load all your lefties and you don’t have righties or lefties --- you have to keep your righties and your lefties balanced on the bench. That’s the most important thing because we know they will go to their matchups. And hopefully it works to our advantage, that it’s going to be one at-bat or two at-bats that we feel that if we hit for somebody, it’s going to be to our advantage.
“And yesterday (Nunez) happened to hit a home run. If he doesn’t hit a home run, probably people will be, ‘Why did he hit for Devers?’ But we felt that was a great matchup for us. And that’s the reason he didn’t start. And that’s the reason he came in and pinch-hit.”
Positive vibe
Ian Kinsler started at second base and Brock Holt was on the bench again.
Holt is still looking for his first World Series start.
Holt was asked how Cora was different from former manager John Farrell.
“You know, for me personally it’s communication,” Holt said. “Being able to know what’s going on, what’s going through his head, when we’re playing, when we’re not playing, certain situations where we might come in during the game. It just makes it so much easier as a team to go out and perform. There wasn’t a whole lot of communication in the past.
“And just kind of the vibe that he brings, the looseness. Not being too far removed from playing himself, he understands the game is hard. And he believes in us. I just think the overall vibe that he brings to the team, to the clubhouse, is so positive that it’s easy for us to go out and kind of do what we’ve been doing.” . . .
J.D. Martinez was in the lineup a night after rolling his ankle while turning second base. Martinez said last night that he was a little sore but doing fine.
“He hasn’t even mentioned it,” Cora said.
Starter TBA
Nathan Eovaldi threw a scoreless eighth inning in relief in Game 1 and was available last night as well.
There was no Game 3 starter announced to oppose Dodgers youngster Walker Buehler. It’ll either be Eovaldi or Rick Porcello.
“We’ll see what happens today,” Cora said. “If we got a shot, we might use him, we might not. If we use him, he won’t pitch Game 3. If we use Rick and we don’t use him, you’ll see it.”
Travel day
The Red Sox won’t travel to Los Angeles until noon today rather than flying directly after the game the way they usually do ahead of road games. Cora wants his guys to rest up before the six-hour flight.
“It just makes sense,” Cora said. “Six hours, get your rest here and go over there and get there in plenty of time to have dinner, go watch the Lakers.”
Cora said he has four tickets to the Lakers game tonight.
“We got plenty of time,” he said. “That’ll be good for them to go over there and be in the area. Family is coming. Should be fun.”
Unfriendly Fenway?
The Dodgers will be excited to get out of Fenway Park.
Pitching coach Rick Honeycutt told Sports Illustrated after Game 1 that starter Clayton Kershaw was being treated poorly by Red Sox fans while trying to warm up in the bullpen before the game.
“Brutal. Pretty brutal,” Honeycutt said, per SI. “What I don’t understand is why baseball allows it. You’ve got the rubber right there and people literally standing over you.”
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts didn’t seem too worked up.
“I didn’t hear too much about it,” he said. “I know a little bit. It’s tight out there. These fans are on you, literally, and figuratively. It’s a little tough to go double barrel with a lefty and the righty. But I haven’t put eyes on it, so I really don’t know. If Honey feels that way, I support it. But it’s not like it’s going to change.”
Many visiting bullpens are close to the fans, like the one in Yankee Stadium.
Eovaldi said he heard an earful before his Game 3 start in the American League Division Series, but he went out and threw seven innings of one-run ball afterward.
“Warming up before the game, the crowd was pretty relentless down there,” he said at the time. “When you come here, you know the crowd’s going to be against you. I try to turn it around and try to keep them out of it as much as possible.”