Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora admitted after a loss to the Houston Astros that it was a mistake to leave Rick Porcello in for the 8th inning.
Alex Cora wants his players to be accountable and he doesn’t shy away from practicing what he preaches. The manager of the Boston Red Sox proved it by admitting he was at fault for Friday night’s loss to the Houston Astros.
Rick Porcello pitched brilliantly against one of the best lineups in baseball, shutting out the Astros through the first seven innings. He was throwing the ball so well that Cora couldn’t resist the urge to send him out to begin the eighth inning. That decision proved to be a costly mistake.
Porcello attacked Jake Marisnick with three straight sliders to lead off the inning. The pitch had been working for him all night but he hung one that Marisnick got a hold of for a double.
Cora stuck with Porcello to face George Springer, arguably the hottest hitter in the league. One pitch later, Springer had his league-leading 17th home run and the Red Sox trailed 2-1.
Porcello was tagged with the loss but Cora pinned the blame on himself when speaking to reporters after the game.
"“That was a bad decision. That was a bad one from the get go,” Cora said, per WEEI.com. “I mean, that’s the best lineup in baseball. He goes seven, and every pitch is high-leverage. He did his job, you know? The whole thing about one hitter and get him out, what’s the point? We have the best player in baseball right now with a man at second and no outs, that’s on me. That’s not on Rick. I just made a bad decision, put him in a bad spot, and we paid the price.”"
Cora regrets the decision to stick with his starter in retrospect but it was a defensible move in the moment. Porcello struck out Springer to begin the game and limited the Astros star to an 0-for-2 with a walk performance prior to that game-changing home run. His manager showed faith in him to put Springer away again because he had earned that trust.
It’s not as if Porcello was laboring entering the inning. He had thrown only 91 pitches through the first seven frames and showed no signs of wearing down, retiring the side in order in the seventh. He had thrown at least 102 pitches in each of his last three starts with a high of 114 during an eight-inning effort last month. It seemed that Porcello had plenty left in the tank for one more inning.
If Cora went to his bullpen to begin the inning only for one of his relievers to lose the game, we’d be lamenting the manager for giving Porcello an early hook. Ryan Brasier relived Porcello after he coughed up the homer and wasn’t any better. Brasier lacked any semblance of control, walking two batters, the first of whom advanced from first to third on a passed ball followed by a wild pitch. The Astros tacked on an insurance run with a sac fly so it’s fair to say that if Porcello hadn’t blown the lead, Brasier would have.
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So was it a mistake to leave Porcello in the game? It would have been ideal to let Porcello wrap up his outing feeling great about his performance but Cora would be kicking himself if he allowed the bullpen to waste that effort. You know, like they did to Chris Sale‘s 17-strikeout gem earlier this week when Brasier took the loss.
Perhaps pulling Porcello earlier in favor of a different reliever would have made a difference considering Brasier’s recent struggles. Marcus Walden has earned as much trust as anyone on this pitching staff this season. Cora could have lifted Porcello after he gave up the leadoff double to Marisnick, calling on Matt Barnes to face Springer with a man on second. Barnes is striking out nearly two batters per inning and has escaped worse jams than this.
There’s no guarantee that Walden and Barnes would have successfully closed out the game but they were better choices than the struggling Brasier. Porcello wasn’t a terrible choice either. Not when he’s dealing the way he was last night, at least through the first seven innings.
It’s admirable that Cora is taking the responsibility for the loss, shielding his starter from the blame. He may have been a bit too hard on himself though. It’s easy to say the manager made a bad decision with the benefit of hindsight. It turned out to be the wrong call but Cora made the decision for the right reasons. Most of the time, his decisions pan out. This simply wasn’t one of those times.