Cora calls off chase early
Velazquez lets Angels run away from Sox
Few can argue Alex Cora’s principal rule of managing, which he learned from Terry Francona.
Don’t chase wins, Francona told him while he was still Cora’s skipper more than a decade ago.
But the 2019 Red Sox no longer have the luxury of playing for tomorrow. They entered yesterday 5½ games back of the second wild card spot with two teams in front of them and just 44 games to play. Their starting rotation is a mess. Any chance at a victory needs to be seized.
Worry about the cost tomorrow.
Instead, Cora waved the white flag with his team just four runs behind and three innings still to play yesterday, as the Red Sox turned to one of their worst relievers in a key spot and let the game get out of reach in a 12-4 loss to the Angels.
“It’s a tough one in that situation because we were very limited today,” Cora said.
In the skipper’s defense, Dave Dombrowski didn’t leave him with too many good options in the bullpen. It wouldn’t be totally fair to blame the manager for not using one of his few reliable relievers when Mike Trout stepped up to the plate with the bases juiced, nobody out and the Red Sox trying to keep within striking distance.
The Angels led just 6-2 at the time of the decision in question. Mathematically, Cora’s decision was supported. FanGraphs calculated the Red Sox’ win expectancy at just 3 percent after Darwinzon Hernandez walked the bases loaded for the best player in the game.
But the Sox have the best offense in baseball. They had taken plenty of great swings on the day, 10 of them that resulted in “hard-hit” balls with an exit velocity of 95 mph or harder. And at hitter-friendly Fenway Park on a warm summer day, it was enough for anyone to think the game was quite winnable, particularly against an Angels bullpen that has an ERA near 5.00 on the year.
“We feel like we can score on their bullpen,” Cora said. “We did, but we weren’t able to put hitters away in the next inning. Darwinzon had three guys with two strikes and they get on base, you see what happens.”
After Hernandez loaded the bases, Cora chose to go with Hector Velazquez, who entered with a 5.55 ERA and ranks near the bottom of most categories related to pitch effectiveness.
Velazquez plunked Trout to allow the Angels’ seventh run to score, surrendered a two-run single to Shohei Ohtani for the eighth and ninth runs, let the 10th run in on a sacrifice fly and the 11th and 12th runs scored on a single by David Fletcher, though Sam Travis mishandled the ball in left field to make it even easier for the Angels to run away with this one.
The Sox offense looked lively in the bottom of the inning, scoring two more, but it hardly mattered at that point. Hernandez was wild to get the Sox in trouble in the seventh and Cora chose to avoid “chasing wins” on this day.
Matt Barnes hasn’t pitched in five days and is one of the best at generating strikeouts.
But if not for Barnes, Cora had no other choice. He’s not going to bring on a lefty to face Trout. Marcus Walden was off after throwing 2⅓ innings the day before. Nathan Eovaldi threw two innings in that game. Brandon Workman is the closer.
Who else is there? Asked if he thought about using Barnes instead of Velazquez, Cora said, “No, not there. That’s the thing about yesterday. We’ve been talking about it the whole season. If we don’t get length in that spot, then we go to Waldy for multiple innings and Nate multiple innings and you run into a situation.
“It’s not chasing wins there. We felt (Velazquez) has been throwing the ball well.”
Dombrowski did nothing to provide Cora with help at the trade deadline and this is the situation the Sox now find themselves in, hoping and praying their starting pitcher throws a quality start, otherwise these games are just about unwinnable, even with an offense that pounds the baseball all over the park.
Starter Rick Porcello once again did not have his best stuff. He got a little unlucky on a decent pitch to Justin Upton in the first inning, when Upton hammered an outside fastball just fair of Pesky’s Pole for a three-run shot. Then Porcello settled in nicely until Trout smoked a fastball down the pipe for a two-run shot in the sixth.
Porcello now has a 5.67 ERA and is struggling, to say the least.
“Last year was a dream season, this year getting punched in the face every fifth day,” he said. “It is what it is, keep making adjustments and grinding.”
Mookie Betts and Brock Holt had two hits each and saw the ball in this one, but with Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi and Mitch Moreland all on the bench for either rest or matchups, there wasn’t enough offense to go around.
And it’s never easy to score when the team is down 10.
Not even the bad teams can make the Red Sox good right now. Their rotation remains inconsistent and there simply aren’t enough relievers.