On Tuesday, the Phillies handed the Red Sox a dose of reality.
“I’m not upset at the guys, I’m not upset at the effort — it’s just the reality of who we are,” Alex Cora said after his team’s 4-1 loss that was keyed by a pair of Kyle Schwar-bombs.
But the thing about Cora’s team? They’re a bunch of fighters, at least if you ask them.
“They have a good team, but we, we play hard. We’re talented,” Cora said Wednesday after Boston’s bats rallied in a big way and this scrappy collection of Sox held on for an 8-6 win to even the series.
Given the chance to prove their manager right or wrong, the Red Sox made Cora look pretty good while slugging out a 9-3 rout to complete an admirable three-game series victory against the best team in the National League.
“Played well, we played well,” said Cora, who couldn’t wait to gloat a little as he cut off the first question during his postgame press conference about his team’s offense. “We gonna lose some games and we gonna win some games, you know?
“Everybody thought that the must-win was Sunday in Chicago because they had the worst record in baseball. We don’t see it that way. We show up every day, and we work hard.”
Boston did the unexpected and knocked around Phillies ace Aaron Nola early, pushing four runs across the plate in the second. What’s more impressive is they didn’t need the long ball to do it, with Jarren Duran knocking a two-run double, Reese McGuire contributing an RBI double of his own and Dominic Smith *dropping* in an RBI single (see what I did there?).
The Red Sox getting to Aaron Nola early?
— Gethin Coolbaugh (@GethinCoolbaugh) June 13, 2024
Yes, yes… I for one completely envisioned this scenario. 👀#DirtyWater #RingTheBell
“He’s probably one of the best pitchers in the league, and I just thought we swung good tonight and we just put some really good swings on the ball, man,” Duran said. “We didn’t try to do too much. We were just keeping it simple and passing the baton to the next guy.”
Of his struggles against the Red Sox, Nola told me in the visiting clubhouse, “I’m gonna flush this one pretty quick. These are not easy, you know. It’s different (when you) give up four runs, eight runs I gave up. Those first four, I mean, the team’s in a better chance to score some runs. Then I give up the next four runs, and it’s a little bit harder to come back on that.”
Kyle Schwarber had plenty of say in the outcome once again, rocketing a bases-clearing double to bring Philly within 4-3 in the fourth. Tanner Houck looked absolutely petrified of giving up a grand slam in the at-bat (can you blame him), and honestly, a three-run double was probably the best possible outcome…
Schwar-basesclearingdouble. #RingTheBell #DirtyWater
— Gethin Coolbaugh (@GethinCoolbaugh) June 14, 2024
But the Sox didn’t buckle. They responded the very next inning, with David Hamilton continuing to swing a hot back with a two-out, RBI base knock to extend the lead to 5-3. Tyler O’Neill then stepped to the plate and unloaded a three-run Green Monster shot — his first home run in eight games since May 19th.
108.4 mph, 430 feet.
— MLB (@MLB) June 14, 2024
Monster blast from Tyler O'Neill. pic.twitter.com/vcEjvNzoMU
Not to be lost in another offensive outburst is another quality start for Houck — that’s five in a row. The Sox righty wasn’t lights out dominant, but against one of the best team’s in baseball you wouldn’t expect him to be. But three runs on eight hits with no walks and five strikeouts over six is certainly worthy of commendation.
That’s 4-0 record and a 1.85 ERA over his last 34 innings, with every start going at least six and three going seven.
“I didn’t locate the ball as well as I really wanted to, but all in all, (to) go out there and pitch six innings against a team like that, take that any day,” said Houck.
Are these Red Sox really the fighters, scrappers, and an underdog/Cinderella story in the making we’re being told they are? Personally, I don’t think so. But I have been wrong, and I can — and will — be wrong again.
It was unquestionably the Sox’ best series win of the season. Was this finally the long-awaited unlocking of their potential that Cora has long been preaching to us about?
Said Houck, “I don’t know if you want to use the word statement, but I mean, going out there and (putting together) two clean games back-to-back against a team like that, against really good pitchers and go out there and put up … nine runs tonight, a lot of runs last night, (it’s) a good confidence-booster all-around for everyone.”
The pen remains in their hands to write the rest of the story… now with only 93 pages remaining.
The next three, though, might be fairly difficult to write…
Finally Sox-Yanks
It took way too long to get here, but on June 14th, the return of baseball’s greatest rivalry is upon us.
The big, bad New York Yankees roll into town on Friday for a three-game series in the first meeting between the AL East rivals of the season.
The Yanks are fresh off a four-game series victory over a much-improved Kansas City team, although it did conclude with New York failing to secure a series sweep with Thursday’s 4-3 defeat.
As always, there will be plenty of storylines to this one. A clash of up-and-coming, hopeful aces on Friday as Brayan Bello opposes Luis Gil. The Yankees continued pursuit of the best record in baseball. Juan Soto’s debut in the Sox-Yanks rivalry, of course.
It will be a great chance for the Red Sox to further validate Cora’s assertions. Bad teams beat good teams plenty over the course of 162 games. So, while nice and encouraging its own, triumphing over the best team in the NL is going to look even better and more significant if it’s followed up by besting the best team in the American League.
Two series victories, back-to-back against literally the two best teams in baseball? Now we’d be talking. That would certainly grab our attention and have us more inclined to believe this isn’t a wasted season, Alex…
“Sometimes it’s gonna be good, sometimes we gonna struggle — cuz that’s who we are, and we have accepted that as a team,” Cora said. “We're going to show up everyday and try to kick your ass. That's the bottom line. And sometimes we will, and sometimes they’ll kick our ass. And that’s the bottom line.”
Gethin Coolbaugh is a columnist for Boston Sports Journal. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on X/Twitter.