Sale heads to the pen to battle Rays lineup
Belichick texts Cora to wish him luck
Some heroics from Nick Pivetta out of the bullpen on Sunday have left the Red Sox with no clear starting pitcher for Game 4 tonight.
RED SOX NOTEBOOK
The Red Sox began Sunday’s game with five starter-types in the bullpen: Pivetta, Tanner Houck, Martin Perez, Eduardo Rodriguez and Chris Sale.
After burning Pivetta for extended relief in Game 3 on Sunday night, when the Sox walked off on the Rays with a 6-4 win, the Sox will have to choose a different starter to fill his shoes in Game 4.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said he changed his mind on Sunday morning and decided Sale would indeed be an option out of relief this weekend.
One day earlier, Cora said Sale would not be used as a reliever this postseason as a way of protecting his health after coming off Tommy John surgery. But Cora said when he saw the Rays’ lineup was stacked with lefthanded hitters against Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi, Cora decided to put lefties Sale and Rodriguez in the bullpen for the game.
“We changed our mind,” Cora said. Sale “feels OK. He feels willing to do it. So we’ll go with it.
“We feel comfortable with him in the bullpen today, let’s leave it at that, he feels he can go medically, everybody is fine with it, and honestly I think mentally for him, I think it will be great, to put the spikes on and be ready for today. There’s a lot of lefties in that lineup. There are a lot of matchups we liked before the series with the lefties we can go to, obviously today is different because we start the righty, hopefully Nate goes deep into the game. But if not, we’ll maneuver the lineup the way we feel we can do it, and hopefully we can get some positive matchups.”
Pivetta entered for the 10th inning of Sunday’s game and needed 67 pitches to get through the 13th until Christian Vazquez walked it off in the bottom of the frame.
Cora was being cryptic about why the medical staff went from not feeling comfortable using Sale out of relief to suddenly being OK with it within 24 hours.
“He’ll be in the bullpen today,” Cora said flatly. “Very (Bill) Belichick, very Sunday football answers from me today.”
“By the way, by the way, you guys might like this, I got a text from him finally. Bill texted me the other day. I’m in the club. I’m in the club. I’m excited. I mean, actually, I texted him today, ‘Hey — beat the Texans.’ He wished me luck before the Wild Card game and then he congratulated us after the Wild Card game.”
Cora said it was the highlight of the year for him to get texted by the Patriots coach.
Accidental lineup change
For the second straight game, the Sox went with a lineup that put Bobby Dalbec on the bench and Kyle Schwarber at first base.
“This is how we’re built and it gives us a chance where we’ve got him on the bench, and this is our best offensive line up against right-handed pitching and we’re not going to deviate from that,” Cora said.
Schwarber has been passable at first base and the Sox like him in the leadoff spot all of a sudden.
The Sox will continue to go with J.D. Martinez in the six-hole after it worked so well in Game 2, when the Sox scored 14 runs on 20 hits. The idea was for Alex Verdugo to bat behind Xander Bogaerts and offer protection in case Martinez’s ankle starts bothering him and he needs to exit the game.
“By accident, we kind of found probably our best lineup of the season balance-wise,” Cora said. “I say ‘by accident’ because J.D. gets hurt, so we have to make adjustments against Gerrit Cole. Then because J.D. wasn’t sure if he can go the whole game, we decided to hit him sixth in case we have to pinch-hit for him or take him out of the game.
“So by accident, I do believe against righties this is the best alignment that we can have offensivewise.”
Jersey Street
The Red Sox essentially entered Sunday with homefield advantage, having two games at Fenway after starting the series 1-1 in Tampa.
“If it’s going to be like the Wild Card Game, it should be fun,” he said. “So hopefully today and tomorrow — not hopefully, I know they’re going to bring the energy. It should be fun.”
The Sox are still debating wearing the alternate yellow jerseys in honor of the Boston Marathon on Monday.
“I’ve got to talk to some people around here and see what we do, but whatever we wear we’ll be fine,” Cora said. “It’s different when you have those alternate uniforms. At one point, they go to some other stuff, they go to the foundation, which is a great cause. I don’t know how many of the yellow ones we still have around. Guys probably took it for granted, signed jerseys, and gave it away and all of that. So there’s a lot of stuff that goes on. We have red, we have white, we’ll make a decision tomorrow I guess.”