McAdam: Cora pushing all the right buttons as Red Sox off to historic 15-2 start

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Alex Cora tinkered with the lineup some Wednesday, as he's done most days. Intent on keeping his promise to make sure his regulars stay fresh and his role players remain involved, Andrew Benintendi got the night off, Hanley Ramirez was elevated to the second spot in the order, Mitch Moreland would be the cleanup hitter du jour and Tzu-Wei Lin got the start at shortstop.

Naturally, it worked. The Red Sox won. Handily. Again.

If he knew managing in the big leagues was going to be this easy, Cora might have skipped his four years at ESPN and his season as the Houston Astros bench coach and begun his career sooner.

It's not easy, of course, and Cora knows it. But for the time being, Cora has the benefit of directing a team which apparently can do little wrong. His starter has the bases loaded and just one out in the first? No problem. Rick Porcello will make an adjustment and strike out the next two hitters, leaving three runners stranded. Match up against a red-hot Angels team on their home turf? No big deal, after back-to-back thrashings in which the Red Sox have outscored Los Angeles by a combined scored of 19-1.

Has a playoff spot been clinched yet?

Cora is alternately proud of what his team has accomplished and uncomfortable with the credit he, as rookie manager, is being afforded for what is the best start in franchise history.

Told he's the first rookie manager in baseball history to see his team win 15 of its first 17 games, Cora very nearly blushes.

"Nah ... nah ... it's a credit to them,'' said Cora, gesturing to his players in the clubhouse following a 9-0 romp over the Angels Wednesday night. "I just put out the lineup. The coaches are helping out, putting them in a spot to be successful. (The players) are using the information to their advantage, but in the end, they're the ones who are hitting fastballs out of the ballpark and playing good defense and throwing the ball over the plate. All the credit goes to them.''

In the clubhouse, the story is different. In recounting how he has used an improved changeup to start the season 4-0 with a 1.40 ERA, Porcello unabashedly credits Cora, who called him the day after he was hired last November and talked to him for an hour about what he had noticed during Porcello's disappointing season. High on Cora's list of recommended adjustments: getting Porcello's changeup straightened out.

Across the clubhouse, Moreland, a reserve, said he hasn't worried about roles or guarantees of playing time.

"I don't really look at that,'' he said after a three-hit, four-RBI night. "You just come in ready to go every day and when your number's called, you try to go out and contribute.''

Moreland further hinted Cora set the proper tone in spring training when he told them how good they could be and how much confidence he had in them as a group.

"Everybody came in with a little-added fire and it's shown,'' Moreland said. "It's showed in spring training and it's continued into the season so far.''

Having won their trust in the spring, Cora can now move players around without bruising egos or inviting doubt. So he doesn't worry that hitting Ramirez second instead of his customary third or fourth is going to set off any alarms.

"They're comfortable in whatever spots I put them,'' said Cora. "I think I caught Hanley off-guard today (when I told him he was hitting second). But I explained to him, 'It's more at-bats for you; you're right behind Mookie (Betts) and in front of J.D. (Martinez). That's a good spot to hit.'  With the stuff (Angels lefty starter Tyler Skaggs) has, I wanted to bunch the righties up and try to create offense. We felt it was the best lineup for today.''

So, of course, Ramirez doubled in the first and scored the game's first run two batters later. In the third, he reached base on a fielder's choice and came around to score on the grand slam by Rafael Devers.

The top three hitters combined to go 7-for-14 with six runs scored. See how easy it is?

"I keep learning a lot from the team,'' said Cora, steering the conversation back to the players. "I've been saying it all along: they show up, they prepare and they go play, and they're having fun. I like that. One of the things that I mentioned when I (was hired) here was that we were going to enjoy winning because we know how tough it is to win at this level.''

Or is it? At 15-2, the rookie manager is making it look easy