It’s Alex Cora’s world. We’re all just living in it.
Cora continues to absolutely dunk on his managerial opponents, including in the 2018 World Series.
This game is a prime example of his managerial domination. By the time the 7th inning was over, Dave Roberts had used all of his bench players and the game was effectively over.
Dave Roberts Makes Mistakes
Let’s get one thing straight. I love Dave Roberts. I was part of the Fenway crowd giving him all kinds of love last night during introductions.
But he seemed befuddled when his team couldn’t quite take the lead. This caused him to completely empty his bench in the top of the 7th to try and score some runs.
Greg Amsinger of the MLB Network did a piece on how Roberts was too humanized to manage well. Nonsense arguments like this happen when things don’t work for a team. Things that used to work just last week in the NLCS.
Those things don’t work anymore because you are facing Alex Cora’s Red Sox.
Alex Cora Is A Clairvoyant Genius
In this game, he started little brother Rafael Devers at third base over Eduardo Nunez. That’s interesting because Nunez has started all year when the Red Sox face a left handed pitcher like Clayton Kershaw. It’s match-up based.
But Cora decided to buck the match-up, and Devers rewarded him. Of course, he did. He went 1-2 with a walk and RBI.
But then something happened.
Roberts brought in a lefty, Alex Woods, to face Devers. Instead of going with Devers, Cora brought in Eduardo Nunez.
What? Devers had already faced on of the most dangerous lefties in the game and done well in that game. Why Nunez now? Let’s let Nunez tell us:
At the 1:30 mark tells Big Papi that Alex Cora prepped him the night before. He told him to be ready in the 7th or 8th when a lefty would be in to face Devers. (By the way, how great is it to see Big Papi living it up in the media this postseason?)
That means Alex Cora foresaw what would happen and then made it happen. That’s like being Yoda, but only on Yoda’s best day. No mistake Yoda. He puts his players in a position to be successful. Every day. All the time.
Alex Cora is calm. Alex Cora is in control. And Alex Cora will destroy you, inning by inning until he is the winner and you are the loser.
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