Even as his team has struggled for most of the last two months, Alex Cora has remained resolute.
He would acknowledge that the Red Sox have lacked consistency and needed to improve, but always, he exhibited a confidence that at some point, a light would go on and the Sox would go on the kind of run it enjoyed in June.
Sure, the task was a tall one, Cora would concede. But just as quickly, he would point to the opportunities available, citing the number of games his club had remaining with the teams ranked ahead of them. In recent days, Cora had made a habit of citing teams that rallied late in the season and rode the momentum to deep playoff runs.
But in the wake of Sunday's 12-4 thumping by the Tampa Bay Rays, that defiant belief seemed shaken.
It could have been a summation of the last two weeks: a 3-3 road trip to Pittsburgh and Baltimore that was hardly satisfactory, followed by a series sweep, at home, to the Toronto Blue Jays. A win Sunday could have given the Sox a .500 homestand (3-3), but of course, a victory seemed out of the question by midway through the game.
Cora saw starter Nick Pivetta not once, not twice, but three times allow additional runs to the Rays immediately after the Red Sox provided him with support. He watched right fielder Alex Verdugo fail to take charge on a flyball to shallow right, instead leaving Franchy Cordero to frantically chase after the ball, back to the plate, only to have the ball tick off his glove.
He then saw his bullpen, as has too often been the case, make things worse instead of better. Hirokazu Sawamura allowed three runs in the sixth, and two innings later, Austin Davis allowed four.
And in meeting with reporters minutes after the game, Cora allowed his frustration to show. He assessed the damage done against Pivetta as "some good swings at some pitches in the middle of the zone.'' He didn't hesitate to call out Verdugo for his passivity in right. "We have to make that play. That put is in a bad spot right there," said Cora. "I talked to Dugie and told him, 'You gotta take charge.' That's a play the outfield has to make.''
But in some ways, Cora saved his harshest critique for when it came to assessing where his team is with just over five weeks remaining in the season
"We've had too many games like that, to be honest with you,'' said Cora, and here, there was no mistaking his disgust. "When you have chances to sweep people, you have to play better than that. It's a little bit disappointing for the whole group, including me. We're better than this. We show flashes. The last few games have been solid. And then that happens. We can't have that. And it's happened a lot this season.''
By "games like that,'' he presumably meant too short an outing from the starter, followed by ineffective inning after inning from the team's lower-leverage reliever. And throw in a lack of assertiveness from a veteran outfielder who should know better. And indeed, there have been far too many games like Sunday -- non-competitive, one-sided and borderline embarrassing.
Sunday marked the 13th time that the Sox had allowed double figures in runs scored, among the highest figure in the game.
After the game and prior to departing for a three-game series, the Sox, according to an industry source, designated both Sawamura and Davis.
Sawamura was brilliant on the road this season (0.84) and atrocious at Fenway (5.83) and no one could ever figure out why, or what to do about it. Davis, acquired at the deadline in 2021, pitched well for the first three months, pitching to a 2.16 ERA in his first 31 outings, through July 7, But since then, his next 19 outings saw him pitch to a 10.71 ERA.
In both cases, it was like each reliever was two different pitchers -- Sawamura, home and away, and David, before July 8 and after.
Now that they're gone, the Red Sox will get a chance to look at two others for the final 35 games. It's likely Zack Kelly and perhaps Frank German. They'll get a head start on auditioning for spots in next year's bullpen and a taste of the big leagues.
They might well be more effective than the two veterans they replace, but it's beyond unlikely that they're going to vault the team back into contention.
Cora isn't trying to kid himself, or anyone else, about his team's prospects. From here on out, the outcomes will matter less.
"We're in a bad spot, we are,'' conceded Cora. "But you just have to show up tomorrow, win that game and win series and keep moving forward.''
At the very least, you suspect he would like to think that all future losses will be more respectable than the one which took place Sunday.