BOSTON — Before the Yankees series began, Alex Cora received a question about how the Red Sox would handle the final weeks of the season. Only 48 hours ago, the stretch run looked like it would become about how far Boston could, or would, push to reach as high as the American League’s top seed.
“You gotta be careful,” Cora said. “One bad step can put you in a bad spot … talking about health. A lot of conversations with trainers … and then we go from there. I think we’re deeper, pitching-wise than, obviously, the last three years. We’re in a good spot. We got our starters rolling this weekend, Gio, Bello and Crochet. Hopefully they can go deep into the game and then we can mix-and-match.”
Finally, it all came together. His pre-game sessions, in recent weeks, had involved laundry lists so injury updates, lineup-shuffling so drastic that Jarren Duran landed on the bench on Saturday and an unfinished pitching rotation plan that the team hopes to finalize on Sunday. Despite it all — the prospect of missing the playoffs didn’t emerge as a possibility until a difficult loss on Saturday that Cora already sat wary of hours before. He prepared to manage aggressively.
The Red Sox submitted a lineup card filled with righties against Yankees starter and Cy Young candidate Max Fried. Cora, calling Fried a different kind of lefty, took drastic measures. Then, he continued to after Brayan Bello put Boston in an early hole. The Red Sox pinch hit three times, used Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman while trailing late and still lost 5-3 after nearly erasing a 4-0 deficit. Boston fell 2.5 games behind New York, and closer to missing the playoffs — 2.0 games above Texas — than hosting the wild card round at Fenway.
Cora deflected several questions about roster plans leading up to October. One, wondering how the Sox would line up against lefties, drew the manager to cast some doubt, or at least remind his team, reporters and fans that Boston’s first trip to the playoffs wasn’t inevitable. It felt that way when the Sox took 3-of-4 from the Yankees in the Bronx last month. Boston peaked at a 98.2% chance to reach the postseason on Sept. 2.
Those odds plummeted to 82.3% this weekend.
“I think we should stop talking October, to be honest with you,” Cora said before Saturday’s game. “There’s a lot of stuff going on, and we have to play better. I’m not saying we’re in a bad spot, but I think we have to wait to see if October is part of this.”
Was it a call-out? A reminder of their reality? Roster limitations, late season exhaustion and a string of injuries could all explain a fourth straight year out of the playoffs. But it feels like a failure given what they achieved in August.
Cora challenged the offense, specifically, to play to the level they had all season. To keep the line moving. Most of the roster began the year with Boston and hit productively, he said. Later, Cora saw Saturday’s loss a progress, including nine hits off Fried, solo shots for Alex Bregman and Jarren Duran. The Sox put three runners in scoring position in the first two innings, then Fried retired six straight batters. Boston finished 1-7 with runners in scoring position, falling to 3-31 over the past three games.
Bregman faced the media after, a familiar sight after emerging as the vocal leader for the clubhouse in his first season. He, too, fell from his offensive height (.309) in mid-August to .278, but broke a homer-less streak by hooking a 1-2 fastball off the Pesky Pole. Prior, he saw what he feared could happen following Roman Anthony’s injury earlier this month. The Sox lost 5-of-9 since, and pressed into the New York series. Nate Eaton ran into an out going first-to-third on a shallow hit in the second and Bello threw only 52-of-92 pitches for strikes.
“You can start swinging harder, trying to do more,” Bregman said. “You can start trying to throw harder and miss over the middle of the plate. I think it’s just slow it down, execute. Sometimes less is more. I feel like that’s something that we need to do a little bit better of a job of. I think the last two days, we’ve been pretty amped up. Obviously, we’re excited, we got a packed house here at Fenway. Sometimes, I think less is more. Try to simplify.”
Anthony’s return doesn’t loom anytime soon. Wilyer Abreu’s could come next week, and while his defense and bat could help, he’ll need time to return to form after missing roughly one month with a nagging calf injury. Cora relented that the bullpen won’t change much from its current cast of right-handers. They lined up the rotation to pitch their three best starters against the Red Sox. Balancing innings, workload and the playoff picture, Cora managed with desperation. Duran stepped in with a home run to slash the lead to 4-3 late. Nathaniel Lowe couldn’t get on base in front of him to make it a game-tying blast. Half the plan worked in the eighth inning.
Aaron Judge beat Chapman in the ninth before the Sox fell 1-2-3 in the bottom half. Cora knew Chapman’s un-hittable streak would end eventually. That dominance on the mound needed to continue to carry the team through missing so much lineup depth. When Anthony fell, Cora stressed the group would keep going. Pitching carried them to a start better than many anticipated.
Now, to avoid an all-too-familiar late season collapse, they’ll need to remain calm, yet urgent, in a playoff race that few players in the locker room have experienced.
“We tried everything today, understanding that the two guys have been rested throughout the week, especially Whit,” Cora said. “We took a chance there, it just didn’t work out.”
- OF Roman Anthony (oblique) will begin working on the treadmill in the first progression of his rehab following initial treatment.
- OF Wilyer Abreu (calf) will return in either the Athletics series between Tuesday-Thursday, or the weekend series in Tampa that follows, Alex Cora said. Abreu last played on Aug. 17 after exiting a home loss to Miami, needing to slow his rehab process after not responding well to running. He’s since been visible in batting practice and has progressed in his running: “He’s out there working out today … he seems like he’s doing a lot better. Yesterday, he ran at 86%. Like I said, getting to 90 is good enough for us. We’ll just have to wait and see.”
- They can measure running percentage, of course: “With the catapult.”
- RHP Liam Hendriks felt forearm tightness during his throwing routine that led the Red Sox to shut him down several weeks ago. He’s unlikely to pitch again this season, Cora said. He last appeared on May 27 and finished 0-2 with a 6.59 ERA in 13.2 innings after missing the entire 2024 season. His two-year, $10 million contract expires this winter, but he plans to keep playing.
- Cora expects that Justin Slaten, Greg Weissert, Garrett Whitlock and Zack Kelly will likely constitute their right-handed relief pitching for the stretch run. It’s possible, he said, that Slaten can extend beyond the one inning usage he’s handled since returning from injury last month.
- Romy Gonzalez extended his hitting streak to 13 games.
- The Astros defeated the Braves and Mariners won their eighth straight to tie the Red Sox for the second wild card spot. One of the two will likely win the AL West, while Texas now sits only 2.0 games behind those three teams to steal a wild card spot.
