What Red Sox’ Alex Cora told Roman Anthony after oblique strain diagnosis

BOSTON — Manager Alex Cora had a straightforward message for Roman Anthony after an MRI revealed that the Red Sox star rookie suffered a left oblique strain.

“I told him to envision ALCS, first at-bat,” Cora said Wednesday. “That’s what I told him. Just put that goal in your mind and hopefully it happens.”

Anthony is not setting a timeline for his return from an oblique strain but vows to work hard to return as soon as possible. A 4-to-6 week absence is about typical for this type of injury, Cora said.

Anthony left Tuesday’s game after his fourth inning at-bat with left oblique tightness. Boston put him on the 10-day injured list earlier Wednesday and recalled Nick Sogard.

Exactly four weeks would be Oct. 1 and six weeks would be Oct. 15.

These timelines could impact Anthony’s availability for the postseason, as the AL Wild Card series is scheduled for Sept. 30-Oct. 2, followed by the ALDS (Oct. 4-10) and the ALCS (Oct. 12-20).

“At one point he’s going to be part of this,” Cora said. “So he’s got to be patient, but (as a team) keep pitching, keep putting good at-bats, keep playing.”

Cora also stressed taking care of the player comes first and the team is secondary.

“First things first is getting him healthy and if he’s ready to go, he’s ready to go,” Cora said. “If not, then we have to keep going ourselves.”

The Red Sox were 32-35 when they promoted Anthony from Triple-A Worcester on June 9. Since then, Boston has gone 46-27.

With Anthony’s significant contribution to the team’s turnaround, Cora was asked how they plan to maintain momentum without him.

“We keep pitching,” Cora said. “We keep pitching and playing good defense. I think Roman is part of that. But the pitching has been the key this season and we expect to keep pitching and other guys have to step up offensively.”

The 21-year-old Anthony has been one of Boston’s most productive offensive players the past two and a half months. He’s batting .292 with a .396 on-base percentage, .463 slugging percentage, .859 OPS, eight home runs, 18 doubles, one triple, 32 RBIs and 48 runs in 71 games.

“As far as I know with the oblique, you have to give it a little bit of time at first and then from there it’s slowly kind of build it back up,” Anthony said. “Obviously for me and wanting to get out there and help this team as soon as I can, I’m going to do everything I can to speed this process up. But as far as I know, at least the first few days, maybe a week, it’s pretty much just laying low and then kind of letting it heal as much as I can before we start moving around.”