The Red Sox enter Tuesday's doubleheader against the Yankees in a battle for last place. All but eliminated from postseason contention with 19 games remaining, Alex Cora relented to fielding a lineup on Sunday with one-third of its hitters called up from Triple-A Worcester over the previous month. Adam Duvall sat in favor of the youth in Monday's planned lineup prior to the rainout. James Paxton went to the IL. Chris Sale's next start got postponed.
Boston waved the proverbial white flag this week. Only days ago, Cora saw a golden opportunity. A bad New York team loomed, then Texas and Toronto, the two teams the Red Sox trailed in the wild card standings (5.0 GB from playoffs entering Friday). Many tuned out the Sox long ago during a frustrating and, at times, unbearable season. Boston's pitching collapsed between August and September. The fielding rarely rose above rock bottom, but they kept fighting into the weekend series against the first-place Orioles.
“I think last year, we were out, out," Cora said on Saturday when asked why Ceddanne Rafaela and other prospects didn't start. "This year, we’re still in the hunt. It doesn’t look great but we’ve still got games against Toronto, we’ve still got games against Texas. We get on a hot streak here, those games might mean something. So right now, this is where we’re at. They're good players. Like I've been saying the whole week, we'll find matchups that they're gonna contribute, and he'll play short whenever he has to play short. But as of right now, this is where we're at."
The Red Sox lost 2-of-3, but rallied from 7-2 and 12-6 deficits to load the bases and reach within 13-12 on Saturday. They won 7-3 after falling behind 3-0 on Sunday. Shared blame between ownership's payroll reduction and Chaim Bloom's team-building place Cora further down the blame ladder. He made mistakes this year, seemed to butt heads with the front office at times and arrived in Boston before Bloom, who never chose his own manager. If the Sox move on from their chief baseball officer, as early rumors suggest could be possible, Bloom's replacement would likely prefer to hire their own manager. That sets up one of the most fascinating winters in recent team history.
Cora should not lose his job regardless of which direction the team chooses. Beyond leading Boston to one of its best seasons ever in 2018, he proved capable in recent years of handling mismatched rosters to keep them in the hunt. More important than any individual managing decisions, he mostly kept those teams locked in despite losing streaks, injuries and thin pitching staffs like the one he oversaw all summer. Only trade deadline inaction rattled his groups. This weekend's fight showed Cora remains the best option to maintain buy-in from this roster's core players. He built a culture that persists despite key players exiting the clubhouse.
"He's always positive," Rafael Devers said on Saturday through the team's interpreter. "He's always there, saying positive things, trying to help us win games. He's always trying to encourage (us) to win games, to be in a good mindset."
The optimism didn't always work this season, though. Kiké Hernández never improved defensively at shortstop before Boston traded him as Cora continued playing him there. Rob Refsnyder's appearances leading off against left-handers grew into a tired strategy. Mostly talking through the team's mindless defensive mistakes as they continued, Connor Wong turned long around second on a crushing base-running mistake against LA, the team ran into a triple play against Atlanta and Reese McGuire's season-defining celebration against Toronto running around third from second on a game-ending fly out turned double play by Wong. Those blunders ultimately fall on the manager. His third base coach Carlos Febles became part of too many questionable decisions that decided games, the latest holding Trevor Story at third base as the tying run that stayed stranded in the ninth on Saturday.
Awkward handoffs between starting pitchers and the bullpen hurt the team too, and without inside knowledge of the plan, using Chris Murphy and Kyle Barraclaugh for nearly 100 relief pitches each in back-to-back losses to LA and Houston makes no sense weeks later. Cora blamed an exhausted bullpen, certainly one not helped by the front office's inability to supplement the starting rotation going back several seasons now. Since those devastating losses, Boston has averaged over five runs per game while nearly winning a series in Tampa and against the MLB-best Orioles. The Triple-A prospects hit and added to wins. Story took steps toward impact at the plate and keeps stealing. McGuire legged out a stand-up RBI triple. Justin Turner, at 38 on one foot, keeps hitting. Devers improved his average to over .300 since his move to No. 2 in the lineup and finished 4-6 on Saturday. Alex Verdugo, who had several spats with his manager earlier in the season, thrived after a promotion to the leadoff spot last month.
"(Triston Casas) has been a huge help for me. He talks to be after every at-bat to see how they pitch to him, so that will help me to have an idea of how they're going to pitch to me ... open communication every time he goes to the plate," outfield prospect Wilyer Abreu said on Saturday, describing Boston's culture. "... (Cora's) been unbelievable. He's been very supportive for all of us. He always stays positive, tries to encourage us to be the best version of ourselves and he's done a great job with me personally, and with everybody on the team."
Keep fighting, Cora repeated all afternoon. Receiving a response from that simple message when complacency and lost hope can kill any baseball team during the long season matters. Finding a way to create meaningful change following four mostly unacceptable years while retaining Cora will prove more difficult. Anyone can say fire Bloom after the past four years. Where does that direct his long-term plan under a new executive? Is giving another unproven general manager a chance worth moving on from a championship manager if that new executive prefers to do so? Is there merit to expanding Cora's front office say in response to a disappointing season? It's a rarity in this sport.
Though Brad Stevens assumed control of the Celtics across town in a surprising manner and performed well in his new role, juggling both responsibilities wasn't something he or any coach would ideally oversee. Stevens never considered stepping in following Ime Udoka's suspension despite Joe Mazzulla stepping in with little coaching experience.
Cora will enter a critical winter with some amount of heat on his seat due to the state of the franchise. It's still difficult to imagine a better option. The Sox already choosing to bring him back following his 2020 firing, if that's any indication about their feelings on how well he manages this team. He relates to the players as a former one himself, succeeded in a Sox uniform, speaks the language many of the team's Latin-American players do and maintained buy-in through shattering losses in recent years. That's enough to welcome him back with open arms.
"We haven't played good defense throughout the season, pitching has been on-and-off. It's tough," Cora said. "We've just gotta keep grinding. Everybody's been giving their best effort out there, (we're) putting guys in situations that are really, really tough as far as usage. We're trying, which is the most important thing. Nobody's quitting here. It was good to see the guys trying so hard and picking each other up. It was fun to watch."