Cora blames himself for spoiling Porcello’s gem

By Stan Hudy

In the end, Alex Cora blamed himself, even though he had plenty of reasons to settle on his final decision.

Rick Porcello was arguably as good as he’s ever been, slicing his way through the Astros’ secondranked offense while holding them to just four singles through seven innings.

Cora looked at the lineup, saw No. 9 hitter Jake Marisnick due up and decided to send Porcello back out for the eighth. He had thrown just 91 pitches.

But Marisnick cranked a double on a high slider, then George Springer got a first-pitch changeup chesthigh on the outer half and did one better, hammering it over the center field wall for a two-run homer.

Porcello’s gem nullified, the Red Sox dropped a 3-1 decision to the Astros on Friday night, missing a key chance to gain some confidence in front of a lively crowd at Fenway Park.

“That was a bad decision,” Cora said of leaving Porcello out for the eighth. “That was a bad one from the get go. I mean, that’s the best lineup in baseball. He goes seven, and every pitch is high-leverage. He did his job, you know?”

But imagine the reaction from a fiery and competitive Porcello, filled with confidence after those seven strong innings, if Cora tried telling him he was done after just 91 pitches?

“No, I was rolling,” Porcello said. “I was at 90 pitches and I fully expected to be back out there.”

Cora’s point, in retrospect, was that Springer is way too good a hitter to let Porcello face him a fourth time. The Sox had their bullpen fully rested after the day off and could’ve gone to any one of their relievers instead of Porcello.

“That’s not on Rick,” Cora said. “I just made a bad decision, put him in a bad spot, and we paid the price.” Porcello wouldn’t go for it. “I’m out there,” he said. “It’s on me. He’s got the confidence to leave me out there and I’ve got to do a better job of rewarding that confidence. That’s 100 percent on me, my pitch count was intact. I just have to make a better pitch.”

Porcello turned his back and gritted his teeth at the sound of Springer’s bat connecting on his 81 mph pitch. Cora came right out of the dugout to take the ball, and Porcello eventually saw his three-game winning streak come to an end.

Still, Porcello is showing something lately.

The reason seems clear: His slider appears as sharp as it’s been in some time. He threw a whopping 41 of them to get his season going with eight shutout innings against the Oakland A’s three weeks back, then 28 of them on Friday.

“It was working, in and out of the zone, in to lefties, too,” said catcher Christian Vazquez. “We struck out Michael Brantley. It was working. It was sharp. Good spin.”

Four sliders produced whiffs. Five produced outs. And the result was the quieting of the typically dominant Astros, who entered scoring almost six runs per game this season.