Bill Koch

Tuesday

Sep 10, 2019 at 8:17 PM


TORONTO --- With his club heading toward mathematical elimination in the American League wild card race, Red Sox manager Alex Cora began to acknowledge reality on Tuesday.


Xander Bogaerts and Brock Holt were both give the night off for the series opener against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mookie Betts is likely to receive Wednesday off and Rafael Devers isn’t expected to play in Thursday’s finale.


"As everybody knows, we’re going to keep playing," [...]

TORONTO --- With his club heading toward mathematical elimination in the American League wild card race, Red Sox manager Alex Cora began to acknowledge reality on Tuesday.

Xander Bogaerts and Brock Holt were both give the night off for the series opener against the Blue Jays at Rogers Centre. Mookie Betts is likely to receive Wednesday off and Rafael Devers isn’t expected to play in Thursday’s finale.

“As everybody knows, we’re going to keep playing,” Cora said. “Whatever window we have, we have. But we’re realistic.”

Boston won just two of seven games on its recent home stand against the Twins and Yankees. The Red Sox have slipped 8 games behind the Athletics for the final playoff spot with just 18 to play. Not even a four-game sweep against the Rays in their upcoming series would halve what is now a 9½-game deficit to the first wild card berth.

“The team that we really control is almost out of the equation, which is the Rays,” Cora said. “The goal was to make that four-game series count, and right now it doesn’t look that way.”

Boston is also likely to make adjustments regarding its workload out of the bullpen. Darwinzon Hernandez and Josh Taylor have both enjoyed productive rookie seasons, pitching to earned-run averages of 3.72 and 2.91, respectively. The two left-handers have made a combined 71 appearances, and 51 of those have come since July 16.

“The two of them, they’ve been outstanding,” Cora said. “From where they were in spring training to where they are now, it’s something that makes everybody happy and proud of their progress.”

 

bkoch@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @BillKoch25