NEW YORK — Brayan Bello sat in the clubhouse, still fully clothed in his baseball uniform, late Tuesday evening. His turf shoes were still on. His gray baseball pants still covered them down to the sole. His red Red Sox hoodie that flashed “October Baseball” was still on, covering his white baseball jersey underneath. He leaned on his wooded locker. Head tilted to the left, wondering how he lasted just 28 pitches and 2 ⅓ innings in Game 2’s 4-3 loss in the Wild Card Series.
This was the game Cora had circled. He had no interest in returning to the Bronx for a decisive Game 3. The plan was to end the Yankees here, on their own field, the moment the door cracked open.
“It’s a tough lineup,” Cora said afterward. “Bunch of lefties. I thought the at-bats were getting better with the lefties and we got a bunch of them in the bullpen. I felt like we have to do this.”
Everything Cora does is with conviction. The players, as manager Aaron Boone said Tuesday, take on his personality. His edge. Every move he makes is with both guts and numbers. Feel and analytics. He never waivers from those.
He saw the Ben Rice homer off Bello in the first inning, a two-run shot to right field that left the bat at 109.4 mph. He saw Giancarlo Stanton‘s 114.5 mph groundout to shortstop hit Trevor’s Story’s glove as if it were a medicine ball, not a baseball. He saw the light-hitting Ryan McMahon‘s 111.8 mph single on Bello’s changeup, his go-to pitch that hasn’t had its typical downward movement, get drilled to right field.
Cora had seen enough. He went to his bullpen.
“He just told me to give him the ball,” said Bello through a team interpreter.
The Yankees struck first, taking a 2-0 lead on Rice’s home run. Story answered in the third with a two-run single. New York punched back in the fifth. Story responded again in the sixth, launching a solo shot. From there, the bullpen locked in. Even the low-leverage arms kept New York quiet. The game shrank with every pitch. Every inning. Had the Red Sox just held on, they’d be soaking in champagne for the second time in a week.
Instead, Garrett Whitlock‘s eighth inning shifted everything – maybe the entire series. He issued a two-out walk to Jazz Chisholm. Fatigue showed. On a 3-2 count, with Chisholm running, Austin Wells floated a soft liner to right. It clipped the chalk, then the wall, took a funky bounce, and let Chisholm score from first under the Nate Eaton throw and Carlos Narvaez tag.
A decisive Game 3 awaits.
“The guys put together good at-bats, and then Wells did a fantastic job as well,” Whitlock said. “So give credit to them. I mean, I definitely lost command, and unfortunately that happened.”
That doesn’t happen often. Not to Whitlock. Not to Cora. Whitlock hadn’t allowed an earned run since Aug. 17, anchoring a back end with Aroldis Chapman that was as good as any in baseball. Cora, meanwhile, was 5-0 in elimination games. He’s managed circles around Boone, always one or two steps ahead. For every counter, Cora had another.
In Game 1, he forced Boone to sit Chisholm and Rice on the bench against lefty matchups, rolling instead with Amed Rosario and Jose Caballero. He pushed Crochet to 117 pitches, icing them further, then turned to Chapman for a four-out save, icing them for a third time. Even yanking Bello after 28 pitches Tuesday was gutsy. Urgency wrapped in calculation, weaponizing lefties out of the bullpen — Justin Wilson, Steven Matz, Payton Tolle.
But Boone didn’t budge. He didn’t take the bait.
Cora had Chapman loose in the eighth before Wells’ RBI single. The matchups were lined up. But bullpen games are risky. They can wobble. They can veer. Relievers are unpredictable. That’s why they’re relievers. Yet nothing about Whitlock has felt risky this year. He’s been nails. Just like Cora, who’s managed a roster of misfits and platoon pieces into October. Who’s ridden Garrett Crochet all season. Who’s developed players while staying atop the American League East.
On Wednesday, both cracked — Whitlock’s stuff and Cora’s plan.
“We are all in,” Cora said. “Whitlock is one of the best pitchers. Got up there. We were doing everything possible to get to, you know, the top of the ninth with a tie game.”
Cora emptied the tank. He wanted this one. He went for the jugular, but the Yankees swung back with their season on the line. The emotion was everywhere, heavier in pinstripes. They knew what was at stake. They knew this could be the final unraveling of a season already scarred by inconsistency and sloppy play. They knew Boston had owned them all year.
Cora pushed, trying to punch his team’s ticket to Toronto for the Division Series, not back to the Bronx for a Game 3. But the latter is now reality.
“This is what baseball is all about,” Bregman said. “Two great teams competing in an unbelievable atmosphere. It’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to it.
Cora told Bello to flush this start and be ready for his next one.
That could be next week or next April.
