Red Sox Journal: Video board tells the story

BOSTON — Who knew how simple the answer was for all those decades of baseball’s home-field advantage?

Scoreboard operators. Or, these days, video board operators. They bombard visiting hitters with negative statistics, attempting to destroy their fragile confidence.

This is a theory proposed on Friday by Red Sox manager Alex Cora as he responded to the usual barrage of questions about the long slump of [...]

BOSTON — Who knew how simple the answer was for all those decades of baseball’s home-field advantage?

Scoreboard operators. Or, these days, video board operators. They bombard visiting hitters with negative statistics, attempting to destroy their fragile confidence.

This is a theory proposed on Friday by Red Sox manager Alex Cora as he responded to the usual barrage of questions about the long slump of Jackie Bradley Jr. and why he was not in the starting lineup.

“We live in an era where you look up in the stadium and there’s a lot of numbers, and you see that average below .200," Cora said. "Of course it has to be tough, and they handpick the worst stats that you have over the course of your career on the road.

“It’s pretty bad. ... I remember J.D. [Martinez] telling me how much he [stinks] in Oakland and the last day, they showed the stats and yeah, he’s awful … they let you know. I mean, we do the same thing here, they show the worst stats.”

Friday was merely a regular day off for Bradley, who was batting .181 through the Red Sox’ first 76 games. Since the end of play on June 5 when his average was .200, Bradley is 5-for-46 (.109) with 12 strikeouts. Take away the strikeouts and Bradley is 5-for-34 (.147) when he hits a fair ball, a number that calls into question Cora’s assertion that aside from the video board stats, bad luck is the center fielder’s biggest issue.

“He is where we want him to be swing-wise,” the manager said. “If somebody has an idea how to change his luck as far as like line drives — I was looking at numbers and think in Baltimore he hit the ball harder than anybody else, and was 0-for-12.

"He’s in a good spot, consistent with his leg kick, been on time, swinging and missing, yeah, but he’s still getting the barrel of his bat on balls.”

Maybe so, but that’s been hard to prove recently.

“The one thing about him, and it’s impressive, is that when the at-bat is over he grabs that glove and plays elite center field. That’s not easy to do, especially in the outfield where you have all that time to think about mechanics and pitch sequences and everything.”

Or, look at the big TV screen behind you in center field.

Lineup changes

Bradley’s absence from the lineup was one of several deviations from the norm.

Martinez batted third, but was in left field for the first time since June 15. Blake Swihart, a switch-hitter, was the designated hitter and batted ninth. Brock Holt spelled Eduardo Nunez, who is a bit banged up according to Cora. It was Holt’s third straight start at second base.

Dustin Pedroia is not improving and Boston has no idea when he will be back. This has become serious enough to introduce the qualifier “if” into the equation, it would seem.

Drew Pomeranz made a first step toward returning to action when he threw from a mound.

Diamond dust

The Red Sox lead the majors with an 82.1 percent success rate in stolen bases. They are 55-for-67. … Boston has already used seven different players at the DH position with Swihart making the third most starts there behind Martinez and Hanley Ramirez.