Bedard: Make no mistake, Alex Cora is the difference for these Red Sox

Ok, so it didn't go exactly to plan. Did anyone really think a Red Sox-Yankees postseason series would wrap up nice and tidy bow?

Of course not.

But in the nerve-wracking end, the Boston Red Sox vanquished the New York Yankees and are moving onto their first American League Championship Series since 2013, when they delivered a most unexpected world title.

And after disappointing losses in the ALDS the previous two years, make no mistake: Alex Cora is the reason why the Red Sox advanced to face the Astros following a 4-3 win over the Yankees on Tuesday night.

Sure, it certainly helped to have J.D. Martinez in the middle of the lineup and as an example to his teammates of the hard work and preparation needed to be one of the best in the game. Absolutely, Martinez was a huge factor in the 108 wins and in the 3-1 series win over New York. Martinez led Sox starters in average (.357) and RBI (six).

But when it came to pushing this group over and beyond the finish line, from the franchise record in victories to ending a two-year drought of being one-and-one in the postseason, it was Cora who was the engine.

The two nights in New York (and most of this series) were basically a Picasso of postseason managing. From deciding to bring Rick Porcello out of the bullpen to rescue Game 1, to pushing up Nathan Eovaldi to be the Game 3 starter and having Porcello go again in Game 4, Cora pushed every right button.

After watching super subs Brock Holt, Rafael Devers and Christian Vazquez help power the Red Sox to 16-1 victory lap on Monday night, Cora stayed with his gut and sat Holt and Devers back down in favor of Ian Kinsler and Eduardo Nunez. Even keeping Vazquez in the lineup was out of the ordinary — he hadn't caught Porcello in any of his starts this season.

Just like Monday night, Cora's moves worked perfectly. Kinsler and Nunez both drove in runs in the three-run third inning. And Vazquez homered in the fourth to give the Red Sox an insurance run at 4-0 that became a lifeline by the time the final out was recorded.

Then, there was the bullpen. Despite having only thrown 65 pitches and with a 4-1 lead, Cora told Porcello he was done after five.

Enter Matt Barnes in the sixth ... three up, three down.

It was Ryan Brasier's turn in the seventh, and the man with a spring training non-roster invitee number (70) sat down his three batters in order.

Up in his box, Dave Dombrowski had the same question many of us had.

"We said, 'Who was going to pitch the eighth?'" the general manager said.

Out walked Chris Sale, in an enormous gamble. If the inning got messy, Cora was putting his Game 5 starter at risk. ... Thirteen pitches, eight strikes, three-straight outs. Bingo.

They had the bridge to closer Craig Kimbrel. OK, so the bridge was a little shaky and you thought the Sox were going to go headfirst into the ravine at any point, but they survived.

Just another day with Alex Cora in his first season as a manager — in Boston or anywhere. It's still unbelievable that Cora is a rookie skipper. One look in the Yankees dugout during this series reinforced how the Red Sox struck gold with their manager.

"We're very fortunate to have a guy in A.C. who is not very far removed from playing the game, which definitely helps," said Barnes. "You have a guy who won the World Series last year, so he knows what it takes to win a World Series.

"But what he did in the postseason from pushing the right buttons, it seemed like every button he pushed was the right one. I was just talking about it from putting in Brock Holt last night, who hasn't played in a week, and the guy hits for the cycle. He puts in Vazquez and he's got a couple knocks and an RBI. Devers played the bat well with a couple knocks last night. And then he puts Kinsler and Nuny in again tonight, and you got RBIs out of those guys. It seemed like every button he's pushing is the right one."

You don't win all those games and sweep the Yankees in their building in the postseason just by pushing the right buttons. No, with Cora it has been something different. Something almost unspoken. From the opening days of spring training — even before that when he reached out and made a personal contact with all the players — he's known the pulse of this crew as if it were hooked up to an EKG machine.

Cora has known exactly the right buttons to push and when. From making the call for Hanley Ramirez to be shipped out instead of losing Blake Swihart. For sticking with his main catchers, Vazquez and Sandy Leon, when they couldn't hit a lick. He never wavered when the calls came from Bradley to be sent to the bench. Cora made the right call to sit Devers in the latter stages of the season and to give Nunez a shot at third. There was also the shot he took at Luis Severino for throwing at Mookie Betts in the four-game sweep at Fenway that basically ended the AL East race.

Cora also hasn't been shy about making sure his players are accountable publicly and privately. The latest lesson came after Eduardo Rodriguez failed to hustle covering first in the Game 2 loss at Fenway. Cora sent his message to Rodriguez, and then reinforced it by throwing him in the ninth inning of the Game 3 beatdown.

And then, finally, there was the decision to bring Sale into the game Tuesday night. As the lanky left-hander jogged in from the bullpen, Cora turned to his bench and said, "Hey, we're all in. He's coming in."

The message to this players: I believe in you guys. We finish this now. There's no tomorrow.

And, as they have so many times during this season, the players responded to their skipper's call.

"I think he's got a great feel for the game," Barnes said. "He understands the game. He does a great job of managing and communicating with everybody on what's going on, and I think it showed in this series, and it will be awesome moving forward."

After two years of postseason disappointments, the Red Sox broke through in Cora's first season as manager. That's not a coincidence.