Alex Cora remembers the problems the Red Sox had in 2019 against the Tampa Bay Rays, and he saw more of the same as he watched from home during the 2020 season while the Rays took the season series 7-3.
Somewhere along the line, he decided it was time to try something else. Whatever the Red Sox were doing against their division rivals, it wasn't working.
So far in 2021, the formula hasn't just been better -- it's been perfect. With their unorthodox -- to put it mildly -- 9-5 win in 11 innings at Tropicana Field Tuesday night, a victory that stretched Boston's lead to 1.5 games in the American League East, the Red Sox improved to 4-0 in head-to-head play with the Rays this season.
It may have helped that the Rays came into Tuesday's series opener with a six-game losing streak, their confidence sapped and their energy drained from a return from the West Coast.
And for a time, after the Rays had rallied on rookie Wander Franco's three-run homer in the fifth in his major league debut, tying the game at 5-5, it appeared as though Tampa Bay might snap its losing streak and take over first all in the same night.
After falling behind 5-2 in the third inning, the Rays, shuffling pitchers into the game seemingly on a whim, finally struck the right match. Former Red Sox righty Collin McHugh turned in three perfect innings of relief from the fourth through the seventh. In fact, in a five-inning stretch from the fourth through the eighth, the Sox managed exactly one baserunner.
Even as the momentum flipped to the home team, the Red Sox waited for the opportunity to apply more pressure. In the 10th, with the automatic runner on second base, the Sox went to work. A single by the slumping Danny Santana sent Bobby Dalbec to third and a steal by Santana offered the Sox two runners in scoring position and no out.
Stagnant for the previous six innings, the Sox began to press the attack. On a wild pitch, Dalbec bolted for home and would have been safe had not Rays reliever Pete Fairbanks managed to block the plate as he raced to slice in and apply the tag. Then, with Santana on third from the wild pitch, Alex Verdugo was intentionally walked.
Cora then had Verdugo take off from second with J.D. Martinez at the plate, but as Martinez swung at strike three, Verdugo was gunned down at second by catcher Mike Zunino, resulting in an inning-ending double play.
The Sox were undeterred.
"it's the way we wanted to play against these guys,'' said Cora. "We're not going to sit back against them and let them do what they do.''
The plan proved more fruitful in the 11th. As soon as Xander Bogaerts singled home automatic runner Connor Wong, pinch-running in his major league debut, Cora had Bogaerts steal second. Rafael Devers then drilled a charitably-scored double between Yandy Diaz's legs at first to score two. With Hunter Renfroe at the plate, the Sox put Devers in motion and Renfroe deftly pulled off a hit-and-run with an opposite-field run-scoring single to right.
After Renfroe moved to third on a groundout, he scored on a sacrifice fly by Kike Hernandez.
In basketball terms, this would have been an up-tempo fast break and full-court press combining for a 10-0 run. This being baseball, the aggressiveness resulted in a four-run rally to win the game.
"There are certain teams (against whom) you have to be aggressive,'' said Cora. "If you sit back and wait for the home run or three straight base hits, it's not going to happen. Those guys, they do that to you. I think we made a conscious effort to put the ball in play today. There were a lot of hits to the opposite field -- kind of like what we did in the first series (against Tampa Bay) at home. I think we had like 39 hits against them and a lot of them were the other way and a lot were against the shift.
"You have to do that against them. I wish we'd do it against everybody, but especially against these guys: you have to take that humble approach and go the other way. There's a lot of empty fly balls in this stadium. To hit it out of the ballpark, you have to crush it.''
It's not just going the other way. It also includes a more aggressive approach on the bases, including stealing bases, putting runners in motion and taking chances.
"They do what they do defensively -- they shift and they put themselves in positions where they expect the ball to be hit,'' Cora offered. "So you have to put pressure on them. Sometimes it looks weird or looks bad. But we don't mind that. We don't. We have to do it because they're that good from the mound.''
Something had to change. What the Red Sox had been doing against the Rays wasn't working.
As a bonus, so far the new game plan is undefeated.
