The best managers are those who can recognize their own team’s weaknesses before anyone else.
Alex Cora hit close to 1.000 in that regard in 2018.
In 2019, it seemed like he and his pupils lost focus, or drive, or they were simply too optimistic and confident in their own ability to make the necessary changes.
There he was again last Friday, stubbornly defiant that Alex Verdugo needed to continue batting second, even against the very left-handers that have silenced him all year.
Less than a week later, he changed his mind.
Monday night, Cora moved Verdugo down to the six hole for the first time all year. Jarren Duran, with three days of big league service time, went from seventh to second. And the heart of the order got a makeover. The new three-four-five now goes Xander Bogaerts-Rafael Devers-J.D. Martinez.
What was the old term Cora used for Mookie Betts, “instant offense?” That’s what Cora got from his new lineup on Monday.
The Sox came out and scored eight runs in the first inning while they steamrolled the Toronto Blue Jays in a 13-4 win in front of 12,811 fans at the Jays’ temporary home at Sahlen Field in Buffalo.
“In the middle of the game (Sunday) I wrote it down,” Cora said afterwards. “We haven’t been great offensively since we went to Oakland. I just felt like moving people around would relax a few guys and I think the key also is getting those two guys in front of J.D. He’s an RBI machine and it just so happens he’s been doing a good job throughout the season.”
The lineup change didn’t exactly go according to plan. Bogaerts never got on base. Devers was on base twice with an RBI.
And Martinez got on base five times, going 4-for-4 with a walk, but never drove in a run.
The difference was that the Sox looked confident at the plate for the first time all month.
“He’s a genius,” Martinez said of Cora in a NESN interview after the game.
Since the team went to Oakland on July 3, Cora has been adamant that his offense hasn’t looked right. The Sox rank 14th in OPS with a .734 mark in that span, but something has been off.
A lot of it has to do with Verdugo, who has been nursing a hamstring injury for much of the season. He entered Monday hitting .222 with a .560 OPS since the Oakland series and has been visibly frustrated at the plate. Moving him down in the order might’ve taken some pressure off him, and he responded with a patient plate approach, going 0-for-2 but walking three times on Monday.
“We made a lineup change and they made me look good,” Cora joked after the game.
The lineup might not change the game’s outcome that much, but it can change attitudes. And the Sox were the first to admit they needed an attitude change on Sunday night, after losing two of three to a dismembered Yankees team that was missing six guys due to COVID-19.
Afterwards, Christian Vazquez said the Red Sox “need to continue to play hard like we are in first place. We need to act more like we’re in first place. That’s the key for us. We need to be more cocky, like we’re in a good place. And we’re not acting like that. That’s what I see right now.”
Cora said he saw those comments, talked to Vazquez about it and agreed with him. The Red Sox weren’t acting like they were a first-place team.
Monday, Cora came out and started talking up Duran, who had just one hit in his first two games, but “looked like he belongs,” according to what the Yankees’ coaching staff told Cora.
“He just said that he was going to try some things out, moving pieces around,” Duran said. “Who knows if I stay there or not, but wherever AC wants to put me, I’m going to do the best I can.”
It’s unusual for Cora to pump up a rookie so quickly, but it might’ve lit a fire under his guys. Moving Martinez, a top-10 hitter in baseball this year, to the five spot might’ve sent a message. Dropping Verdugo might’ve changed his attitude.
For whatever happened on Monday night, Cora will argue he didn’t have any impact.
“The at-bats were really professional today,” he said.
But to notice that his team needed a change, to shuffle the deck in the middle of July with his roster in first place, to be unafraid to insert a rookie in the two-hole for a guy who has hit there all year — these are moves that only a few managers have the guts to make.
Even if the Sox were shutout on Monday, we could sit back and appreciate that he’s willing to make changes when something isn’t working.
The Sox might be in first-place, but they’re far from flawless.
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July 20, 2021 at 04:12PM
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Mastrodonato: Alex Cora is managing the Red Sox like it’s 2018 again - Boston Herald
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