Alex Cora Called Today One Of The Worst Days He's Had Since Becoming The Manager Of The Boston Red Sox In 2018
Exactly one week ago today, the Red Sox soared to a season high nine games over .500. They had played .657 ball over a six week span and even a doubter like myself even began to believe a little bit in what they had going. Their offense was overcoming all of their flaws and they were winning tons of games. Casas, Yoshida, Turner, and Duran were all contributing in big ways to help take the load off of Devers' shoulders. Since that moment they've lost 6 of 7, didn't buy or sell at the deadline short of shipping Kiké to LA, and now find themselves back in last place of the AL East.
The cherry on top of their nightmare stretch came today as Reese McGuire assumed this Connor Wong fly ball was headed for the Mass Pike in the 9th inning.
As someone who has watched the Yankees make a ton of unexplainable base running miscues this year, that one is up there.You could say McGuire fucked himself there. Hand up in the air on contact celebrating, takes one look and begins his trot on home. 3rd base coach seemingly waving him on until the ball ends up in the outfielder's glove. Everything you want to see as a Sox fan.
The fun continued afterwards as Cora angrily explained to the media that Verdugo was benched because of a "manager's decision." He called it one of the worst days he's had as their skipper since coming over in '18.
Verdugo's name floated around as a potential sell piece by Bloom, but stuck around. Feel like from what I've read he's pretty checked out.
Him showing up just two hours before first pitch would back that assumption, but for Cora to say what he said it's gotta be something more in the clubhouse, no? Losing the lock room maybe?
Boston has a 10 game stretch coming up after Sunday where they play KC, DET, and Wash. After that it's pretty difficult the rest of the way. They're an extremely inconsistent team who make a ton of stupid defensive/baseball IQ plays. I'm not really sure why Bloom didn't sell off pieces like Verdugo, Duvall, or Paxton at the deadline. In fact the rumor was he was in on Justin Verlander. What? Pretty weird to be in on an aging pitcher like JV and when you come up short there you don't look elsewhere for other buy options.
The Yankees and Red Sox are both in pretty weird, unsatisfactory positions. The Rays and O's are the premier teams in this division while we're both hanging at the bottom. It sucks. Nothing was better than these two teams playing top-level baseball and going at each other's necks. Currently they battle to see who can out-embarrass the other on any given night.