Cool with this weather
Aids team’s plan to limit aces’ workload
Yesterday’s snowfall — hello there, old friend — was a needless reminder that a mass of Arctic air has taken up residency in New England this April.
The cold weather is not welcome here, but it’s fight or flight time and hardy New Englanders don’t give up or in. So with winter jackets and down comforters out of the closet, why not look at the weather the way the Red Sox are looking at it.
Every team wants to play in the cold weather twice — once in April, and a second time in October for the playoffs.
Everything the Red Sox have done and said since spring training has been made with an eye toward playing deep into October.
This weather is a warmup act. Five of the Red Sox’ six wins in seven tries were gained in Florida, but the sixth one was collected at chilly Fenway Thursday.
Feeling cold is a state of mind the Red Sox are embracing with layered arms.
“It’s funny because it’s cold in April but it’s never cold in October and the weather is still horrible in October,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora before the home opener. “There’s something about it that in October we don’t care and April we do.”
Actually, Cora does not really care about the April chill. Technological advances in layered clothing, hot packs and dugout flame-blowers go a long way toward keeping everyone’s minds on the game rather than not feeling their extremities.
If Cora hears complaints, he’s going to snuff them out.
“You’ve just got to get used to it — we knew we were coming up here before the season,” said Cora. “If they’re complaining about it, I’ll remind them, ‘Hey man, where are we shooting to go? It’s going to be cold in October, November, this is just rehearsal.’ ”
Cora’s moves also reflect the team’s October mindset.
Every position player has made at least one start and every regular except for three has had at least one day off.
Cora took out Chris Sale in Miami after just 93 pitches. Sale was not pitch efficient and needed only five innings to reach that mark. When asked about the timing, Cora swatted it away. At 93 pitches, “I didn’t want to push it,” he said, adding, “Full bullpen.”
Cora also didn’t push it in the home opener with David Price, who was still cruising when he finished the seventh. He was at 91 pitches, however, so Cora kept him in the dugout for the eighth.
“We have to take care of these guys,” said Cora.
Cora is a man of his word so far, and even though it’s early, it’s noteworthy how the manager has treated his top two guns.
Cora took out Price after only 76 pitches in his first start and he had only pitched seven innings at that point.
With Sale, he went 92 pitches in his first start and Cora allowed him only one more pitch in start No. 2.
Consider how much Sale was allowed to throw last year, his first with the Red Sox.
In his first three starts, his pitch count increased from 104 to 108 to 111, and then he made six more starts of 100-plus pitches — three of them 110-plus — before he had his first sub-100 pitch start on May 24. Then, it was right back to tripledigit counts. Sale threw 11 consecutive 100-plus-pitch games, with 10 of them lasting beyond 110 pitches. His second sub-100-pitch start came on Aug. 1, start No. 22. By September, it was clear Sale was beginning to tire or at least the team decided it had better start preserving some bullets.
Three of Sale’s five September starts were below 100 pitches.
His awful start in Game 1 of the Division Series against the Astros suggests strongly that Sale was fried.
This spring, Sale himself said he was too amped up entering last year’s spring training as he tried to impress his new team. That caught up to him in the end, he said, but so did all those extra pitches he threw.
It’s been extensively documented how the starting rotation has been on the slow-start trajectory in order to have as many bullets left as possible for an October run.
“We can’t overlook the season,” said Sale this spring. “We know what we have to do but we’re not going to be satisfied, if you will, with a division title, or a Division Series or a championship title, whatever it is. We want to be the last team standing. And that’s all we’ve talked about in spring training from top to bottom. Every meeting is with the goal of getting all the way through October and into November if need be.”
Should the Red Sox be playing in the World Series in late October, they may well reflect on this recent spate of chilly weather fondly.
Hello there, old, cold friend.