NEW YORK — Alex Cora watched from the Boston Red Sox dugout on Wednesday night as the New York Yankees knocked around his starter, Brayan Bello. There was only one out in the third inning, but the manager had seen enough.
It is Cora’s belief there can be little leeway given to a young starter struggling to find his rhythm — not in October, not when the stakes are high, not when the games are close and the leads often fleeting. So after just 28 pitches, he emerged from the dugout and signaled for the bullpen door to swing open.
With that, Cora began the chain reaction that shaped a 4-3 loss to the Yankees, one that set up a do-or-die Game 3 of what has been a tense Wild Card Series. To save their season, with Lucas Giolito now injured, the Red Sox must turn to rookie Connelly Early and hope he covers enough innings to spell a tired bullpen.
“It’s about staying in the moment,” Cora said recently about managing under pressure. “I don’t know how others deal with it. But you’re on your own. For me, if you get caught up on what can happen next week or tomorrow, what’s the point? You can plan ahead and you have goals, but at the end, you know, I need to be present.”
Cora proved to be a man of his word. He was present. He was seemingly not caught up in what could happen tomorrow. He was going all-in to close out the best-of-three series, even if it meant burning through six relievers for 5 2/3 innings. That it didn’t work — and that there would be consequences — left Cora unfazed.
“Felt like at that point kind of like we have to do this,” Cora said of his early hook on Bello. “It doesn’t feel good because you want the kid to go out there and get his experience and pitch deep into the game. I felt at that moment we needed to.”
Early on the mound for Game 3 brings an element of the unknown. The 23-year-old has posted a 2.33 ERA through four starts with 29 strikeouts in 19 1/3 innings. But he’s endured nothing like a winner-take-all game. There’s no telling if he’ll be up for sustaining that success. If not, Cora figures to be aggressive once again. Cora could have all hands on deck outside of Garrett Whitlock, who entered Game 2 and threw a season-high 47 pitches.
Of course, this is Cora’s wheelhouse. October Alex manages with aggression in uncomfortable spots. He did so with his pitchers in 2018 and 2021, so this year would be no different. Cora telegraphed as much as the Red Sox were fighting to clinch their playoff spot. On the final Friday of the regular season, Cora tapped seven relievers to cover six innings. It offered a reminder of how decisive he could be in the postseason.
On Wednesday, he followed through. He turned first to veteran lefty Justin Wilson, who escaped Bello’s one-out jam, turning in 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Justin Slaten was next, entering in the fifth. He issued a two-out walk and wild pitch, then gave up a go-ahead run on a fly ball to left off the bat of Aaron Judge that Jarren Duran misplayed — “I’m gonna have to wear that one,” Duran said. But the Red Sox immediately responded as Trevor Story tied the game with a solo homer.
From Slaten to Steven Matz to Zack Kelly, Cora zigzagged through the Yankees lineup.
Once the bullpen knew what kind of game it would be, they locked in.
“There’s anxiety because everybody’s kind of in that mode of getting ready and everybody’s trying to throw and do bands and stretch at the same time,” Slaten said. “Then the phone rings, everything stops for a second, you hear your name and you just kind of get going.”
Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello started Wednesday’s loss to the Yankees before manager Alex Cora turned to his bullpen. (Photo: Al Bello / Getty Images)
Some managers hate October anxiety, but Cora seems to relish it. There’s a comfort in the control. In September, teams are jockeying for spots: “September is to suffer,” he said recently. Your team could get bumped out by another on a hot streak. Cora appreciates the finality of October.
“I don’t have to manage the week. I can be as aggressive as I want to, or as patient as I want to, you just try to win that game,” Cora said of the perceived pressure. “That’s the cool thing. Although it’s a series, there’s no tomorrow. You just try to do everything possible to win that day, and (if) it doesn’t happen, then you get ready for the next one.”
That was something Cora learned as a rookie manager in 2018 from general manager David Dombrowski.
“That year, I learned so much from him, like, ‘Kid, you got to keep going. There’s no tomorrow,’” Cora said. “Win today and then we will see where we are at the next day. Are you going to win every game? No. But you have to give yourself a chance every single night.”
With that in mind, in a 3-3 game in the seventh, Cora went all-in with one of his best relievers, Whitlock. The right-hander, in his first season back since missing last year with an internal brace procedure, dominated all season. He threw a team-high 72 innings, posting a 2.25 ERA and 1.08 WHIP as the eighth-inning set-up man ahead of Aroldis Chapman.
On Wednesday, he gave it his all. He worked around a one-out double in the seventh and came back in the eighth, getting two quick outs before a walk to Jazz Chisholm Jr. Austin Wells followed by slicing a single to right as Chisholm sped around the bases, sliding headfirst just ahead of Nate Eaton’s throw as New York took the lead. Whitlock allowed another single and a walk before Cora lifted him at 47 pitches. It marked the most he’d thrown since April 16, 2024, the last game he’d pitched before his surgery, when he was still a starting pitcher.
“I got tired towards the end,” Whitlock said. “I made some good pitches, and they did a good job. … I definitely lost command. And unfortunately, that happened.”
Whitlock hadn’t given up a run since Aug. 17.
“He is one of the best pitchers we got up there,” Cora said. “We were doing everything possible to get to the top of the ninth with a tie game. But it is one of those that, at that point, we were trying to win that game. And it didn’t happen.”
Rookie Payton Tolle entered with the bases loaded and finished off the eighth. With a 4-3 lead and two outs in the top of the ninth, Ceddanne Rafaela sent a deep fly ball to right field, but Judge caught it in front of the wall to end the game and push the series to Game 3.
Cora owns an 18-9 postseason managerial record with three trips to the playoffs. His moves have been the right ones more often than not, and on Wednesday, he nearly pulled off another impressive win.
Mediocrity and missing out on the postseason the last three seasons served as a reminder.
“I like to compete. I like to win. Losing sucks,” he said. “Those punches the last few years help me to understand coming into the season, whatever expectations, you got to stay in the moment.”
In a back-and-forth series with New York, nothing figured to be easy. Cora will be ready — and likely aggressive — in Game 3.
(Top photo of Alex Cora and Garrett Crochet: Al Bello / Getty Images)
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