Bedard: Coming from Astros, Cora might not have been the difference in this series - but he was for Red Sox

HOUSTON — Last year, the Astros rolled the Red Sox 3-1 in the Division Series on their way to winning their first World Series title.

This season, with both rosters basically the same, Boston spotted Houston the first game at Fenway in the American League Championship Series, and then the Red Sox ran the table with four-straight victories — including three at Minute Maid Park (where the Astros had won 10 of their previous 11 postseason games) — to advance to the World Series after Thursday night's 4-1 victory in Game 5.

It would be too simple to say Alex Cora, who was A.J. Hinch's bench coach last year for Houston and is now in his first year as Red Sox manager, has been the difference from one season to the next.

It's very tough for teams to repeat. With the Astros now eliminated, Major League Baseball will crown a different champion for the 18th-straight season. People often go to extreme lengths to climb the mountain and, once there, maybe don't put in quite the same effort on the other side.

And the Astros had some injuries that limited some of their best players and former World Series heroes (Jose Altuve, Lance McCullers and Brian McCann, to name a few).

So it's impossible to say if Cora remained in Houston and the Red Sox had another skipper, that things would have been different.

But you can definitely say this: these Red Sox players think Cora was the major difference in their transformation from a good regular-season team that wilted in October under former manager John Farrell, to a lion that not only set a franchise-record in wins, but has roared to five-straight road postseason victories at Yankee Stadium and Minute Maid Park.

"I don't want it to be a comparison between manager John and AC. And it's not. But AC has been huge for us all year long," said David Price, who finally broke through under Cora and not Farrell, the noted pitching expert.

"Not that John wasn't huge, or that John is not a good manager ... or whatever it is. You know, AC just fits this group really well. And he did it before our first day in spring training, just getting guys together, whether it's through text messages and phone calls and going out to lunch in January. Just getting everybody on the same page and making sure everybody has that same one common goal. And he's been phenomenal for us."

J.D. Martinez had been with a few teams and managers before landing as Boston's prized free agent and, really, only major addition in the offseason. Martinez has certainly had a profound influence on the Red Sox locker room with his lead-by-example approach, but he was quick to give Cora praise.

"He’s been awesome," Martinez said. "Controlling the clubhouse, talking to the guys, just getting the feedback and the feel. There’s sometimes where guys are beat up but he’s like, ‘No, dude, you're not playing, you’re hurting.’ Most managers would run you out there. I think he understands that and guys see that and want to play for him.

"This guy's been around baseball, you know what I mean? When you’ve played the game and you’ve been around the guys, you kind of know how to bounce in and out (of the locker room)."

It's tough to know exactly where the credit lies when it comes to the decision-making process between a manager and bench coach. Cora has said in the past that last postseason, where the Astros used a different starting pitcher in relief in each round of the playoffs, he wasn't always on board with Hinch's decisions.

But the Astros fizzled out in this series without having tried that tactic, while Cora used Rick Porcello and Chris Sale masterfully out of the bullpen to defeat the Yankees, and Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi to put down the Astros. With the bullpen taxed, Eovaldi and his 1.1 innings of relief on Thursday night were the needed bridge to closer Craig Kimbrel.

“He has his beliefs," Hinch said of Cora before the series. "He’s very convicted, passionate. I fed off that a little bit. He fed off of the things that I bring to the table. He was obviously right next to me every step along the way. As a bench coach, you’re involved in everything, maybe master of nothing when it comes to not being in charge. But he was very impactful with our guys."

Carlos Correa and Alex Bregman raved about Cora's influence on them during their championship season.

"Managing nowadays is not an easy job," said Hinch. "And I know, I laugh about it, but everybody thinks they're a really good manager. But to be able to command that clubhouse and lead a group of men to where he's going, he should feel very proud. I think his convictions, his demeanor, his personality that rubbed off on that team is something that I noticed and something that he should be proud of."

Cora's influence on the season at large has been easy to see. From parking Mookie Betts into the lead-off spot and telling him and Xander Bogaerts to be more aggressive, and his undying faith while Jackie Bradley Jr. batted .180 for half the season, to his sterling game-to-game lineup adjustments in this postseason, Cora has basically batted 1.000 this season.

"There's a ton of things (he's done), that's what makes him special," said Bradley while seated next to his AL MVP trophy. "His ability to communicate with us, relate with us. We feel like he can be one of the guys, but we also understand his leadership, his role, who he is. He takes control. He makes sure that we continue to keep pressing forward.

"He spoke about every single day: turn the page, turn the page, moving on to the next step, not dwelling on the past, what can we do for the present and what's going to help out for the future."

One thing that shouldn't be overlooked as the Red Sox beat the Astros while keeping down Bregman (.133 average) and Altuve (.250), and while touching up all four of Houston's vaunted starters, including Justin Verlander, who allowed all four runs in six innings on Thursday night, is the influence that bullpen coach Craig Bjornson had. Bjornson was brought from the Astros to the Red Sox by Cora. That's a lot of institutional knowledge.

"Timmy (Hyers, hitting coach), Andy (Barkett, assistant hitting coach) they did their homework and C.B. was a big part of what they did offensively, how they approached guys — he was amazing, it was fun to watch," Cora said.

As the celebration went on in the Red Sox clubhouse late Thursday, the realization came that the Red Sox won both Game 4 and 5 on Cora's 43rd birthday. It was also one year and one day from the first time Cora met with the Red Sox brass in New York and basically set the course for him becoming Red Sox manager and having this kind of influence on a team that had underachieved the previous two years.

Mission accomplished ... with more to come.