Red Sox Journal: Francona's return sure to include many stories

BOSTON — By now, seven years after he managed his final game in Boston, it’s no longer a special occasion when Terry Francona returns to Fenway Park. It’s not even a particularly special occasion when Francona manages against a former protégé; John Farrell, after all, was Francona’s pitching coach before he moved into the manager’s office Francona once occupied.

But when Francona’s Cleveland Indians come to Fenway Park on Monday, [...]

BOSTON — By now, seven years after he managed his final game in Boston, it’s no longer a special occasion when Terry Francona returns to Fenway Park. It’s not even a particularly special occasion when Francona manages against a former protégé; John Farrell, after all, was Francona’s pitching coach before he moved into the manager’s office Francona once occupied.

But when Francona’s Cleveland Indians come to Fenway Park on Monday, the two-time World Series winner will manage against one of his former players — first-year Red Sox manager Alex Cora.

Cora played for parts of four seasons under Francona in Boston, including the 2007 season that ended in a World Series title. That means four years’ worth of stories — and when he thinks back on the idiosyncrasies that make Francona who he is, he said on Sunday, one in particular comes to mind.

It was 2007. Left-handed-hitting right fielder J.D. Drew was in a pull-happy mode at the plate, consistently rolling over pitches and grounding out to second base. Though it was only the first of the five years he’d spend managing Drew, Francona already knew how best to motivate him — as Cora explained.

“I don’t know if we can talk about incentives,” Cora said with a sly smile, by way of prologue. “Before a game, Tito goes, ‘J.D., every time you hit the wall, you get …’ a gift, let’s put it that way. J.D.’s first at-bat, he goes and hits the wall. He’s going that way now. J.D. is getting a lot of gifts from Tito — boom, boom, boom.”

The gift-giving came to a head one day when Drew hit a fly ball to left-center field, around where the Green Monster meets the center-field fence.

“Tito was like, ‘That one hit the right side of the wall,’ ” Cora said. “J.D. was like, ‘No way. It hit the wall.’ They were going back and forth, back and forth — during the game. They came up to the video room to see it. They came up and watched, and, actually, J.D. was right. The ball hit the wall.”

Two of the best seasons Drew had in his career were the seasons immediately following that one — in 2008 and 2009, when he hit a combined .279 with a .399 on-base percentage and a .521 slugging percentage. His Red Sox career ended on the same night as that of Francona — on September 28, 2011, at Camden Yards in Baltimore.

Checking the numbers

For a time, Ryan Brasier looked like he might be a bit of a mirage.

The rags-to-riches reliever compiled a 0.90 ERA in the month of July. But he struck out just seven hitters and walked four in his first 10 innings for the Red Sox, numbers one normally doesn’t see for a pitcher who routinely pitches at 98 mph. When opponents made contact, as they did often, the result tended to be loud contact to the outfield.

Brasier has seen his ERA climb since the start of August, albeit just marginally. But everything about the way he has pitched suggests he’s gotten better. He has 11 strikeouts against just one walk in eight innings, including at least one strikeout in each of his last eight outings. His ground-ball rate is up. He’s getting weaker contact.

Among Red Sox relievers, Brasier has the best strikeout-to-walk ratio since the All-Star break (5.3), and it isn’t particularly close.

“He's been able to mix up other pitches now — the slider, the split sometimes, using the fastball in different spots,” Cora said. “Now you can see it. There's a lot of ground balls and weak contact. That's what we saw in spring training, too, and that's why we liked the guy.”

Rehab start set

Eduardo Rodriguez is expected to pitch four innings in a rehab start for Double-A Portland on Monday, Cora said. Rodriguez has been on the shelf since he injured his ankle in a collision near first base on July 14. Before his injury, Rodriguez had pitched to a 3.44 ERA in 19 starts, and he had struck out 110 hitters in 104 2/3 innings pitched.

Cora said last week that Rodriguez will return to the Red Sox as a starting pitcher, not as a reliever. He’ll presumably have an edge over newcomer Nathan Eovaldi for the fourth spot in Boston’s postseason rotation, but that spot won’t be a given.