Cora shaves beard, shakes up lineup
Story moved to sixth, Bogaerts to cleanup
Alex Cora knew he had to change something.
Instead, he changed two things.
Cora finally shaved his beard on Tuesday ahead of the Sox’ series-opener with the Braves in Atlanta, telling reporters that he was being a little superstitious in hopes that the dead offense would turn it around.
He changed the lineup, too.
Kiké Hernandez was back in the leadoff spot, the slumping Trevor Story got moved to sixth, Rafael Devers went back from third to second, J.D. Martinez took over in the three-hole and Xander Bogaerts was moved to the cleanup spot.
“Flip-flopping the big boys and we’ll see what happens,” Cora told reporters. “Right now, we’re just trying to figure it out. It’s not throwing pasta at the wall to see what sticks. No, it’s that we have some capable guys who right now aren’t swinging the bats well. So hopefully moving them around is going to benefit us.”
Story moved to sixth
Story has unquestionably been the biggest disappointment of the season so far. After signing a six-year, $140 million contract, the longtime Colorado Rockies shortstop entered Tuesday with a .194 average and .545 OPS that rank among the worst in MLB.
Hitting coach Peter Fatse told NESN that he was concerned about Story swinging underneath fastballs, but trusted that he’d figure it out. Story is uncharacteristically struggling against the fastball, hitting just .171 with a .220 slugging percentage against heaters after hitting .269 with a .495 slugging percentage off them last year.
Almost all of his damage this year has come against hanging breaking balls, which he’s had no trouble slugging into the gaps for extra-base hits, but is still looking for his first home run.
“At the end of the day you know that was going to happen; it’s going to be bases loaded and he’s going to come up to the plate and we still believe in the player,” Cora said. “We’ve done this before. We’ll keep trying to move them around and see what makes sense for us. Today it just makes sense against a good pitcher (Kyle Wright) today.”
Different look to Interleague play
It was an odd look to see the Sox in a National League ballpark but still get to use a designated hitter. They had been 16-4 against NL teams last season, but this is the first season where the NL has adopted the DH, making it easier for the Sox to keep Martinez out of the outfield.
The Sox will also play Interleague games against teams from the NL Central this year. They own a .603 all-time winning percentage against the NL, highest in MLB.
Atlanta seemed as good a place as any for the Red Sox to get their season going. The Braves were last year’s Cinderella story after entering August with a losing record, but finishing strong down the stretch and right on through toward claiming a World Series title.
Bonus baseball isn’t working for Sox
The Red Sox entered Tuesday with a five-game losing streak. They haven’t lost six in a row since the dreaded 2020 season.
Six of the Sox’ 19 losses have come in extra innings. No other team has played more than four extra-inning games this year. The Sox are 0-6 in extras. Five of their last 12 losses have been in extra innings.
Cora said in spring training that he was in favor of the rule that puts a ghost runner on second base to start extra innings and the league listened, adding the rule back for the 2022 season just before the regular season started.
Cora joked recently that he made a mistake in voicing his public support for the rule.
O’Halloran reveals how he got his start
Assistant general manager Brian O’Halloran had a crazy start to his career in Boston, and he told MLB.com this week that his job at a logistics company in Moscow was one that helped lead him back to graduate school.
He said former Sox GM Theo Epstein was the one who got O’Halloran his first job in baseball as an intern with the San Diego Padres, but it was Epstein who hired him with the Red Sox for the first time as a baseball operations assistant in 2002.
“Initially, (Epstein) said, ‘Look, there isn’t really a spot for you — quite literally, there isn’t a spot for you,’” O’Halloran told MLB. com’s Executive Access podcast. “‘We have this intern named Jed (Hoyer), so you can come in and use his computer when he leaves for the day, which is usually around 11 at night. If you want to come and chart games at night, that’s fine. That’s all I’ve got.’
“I said, ‘Yeah, no problem.’ So I used to call Jed at 10, ask him what time he was leaving, then come in and sit on his computer and chart mostly Minor League games until 3 or 4 in the morning. At some point, I think they felt bad for me, so they let me start coming in during the day.”
O’Halloran quickly moved up in the Sox organization, becoming an assistant GM in 2011 and named the GM in 2019.