Alex Cora opted to use multiple starting pitchers in relief roles to help the Red Sox clinch the top Wild Card spot, evoking his 2018 postseason pitching management
Alex Cora managed the Boston Red Sox‘ final game of the 2021 season like it was the deciding game of the World Series.
Who can blame him? It worked the first time.
During the 2018 postseason, Red Sox starters combined for over 18 innings of relief work between the ALDS, ALCS, and World Series. Most notable were Nathan Eovaldi‘s heroics in Game 3 and Chris Sale‘s iconic closing of Game 5, when he brought Manny Machado down to his knee and cemented Boston’s fourth championship in fifteen years.
During Sunday’s regular-season finale, the Red Sox used two former starters and two current starters in relief roles. After Cora played it safe and took starter Sale out after just 2 1/3 innings, Hirokazu Sawamura came in to relieve him. Then, Garrett Richards and Martín Pérez each took an inning. Both Richards and Pérez began the season in the rotation but were moved to the bullpen late in the summer.
Until recently, Richards had been excellent since transitioning to a relief role, but after being overworked in the final stretch of the season, the wear and tear were beginning to show. Sunday was Richards’ third relief appearance in four days, and he allowed three earned runs on two hits, walking two, and only managing one strikeout.
After Garrett Whitlock made his triumphant return from the 10-Day IL with a scoreless seventh inning, Cora handed the game over to the starting rotation. Eduardo Rodriguez pitched a scoreless eighth inning on only eight pitches, and Nick Pivetta closed out the game with a scoreless ninth, earning his second career save, his first with the Sox.
Overall, Pérez, Whitlock, Rodriguez, and Pivetta combined for four hitless shutout innings, holding the Nationals down long enough for their teammates’ bats to finally wake up and fight back.
Alex Cora’s method of handling pitchers helped the Red Sox win the 2018 World Series
The 2018 Red Sox’ success was due in large part to the team staying healthy for much of the regular season, especially the starting rotation. But more than that, Cora’s bold decision to throw every available pitcher at their opponents helped the Sox blaze through the postseason. In the ALDS, Rick Porcello, Rodriguez, and Sale combined for 4 1/3 innings of relief work, and in the ALCS, it was Porcello, Rodriguez, and Nathan Eovaldi bullpenning for a total of 4 2/3 innings.
In Game 3 of the 2018 World Series, Nathan Eovaldi, who was slated to start Game 4, made a relief appearance that ended up making history. He also ended up throwing more innings (6) and pitches (97) than that night’s starter, Porcello, who threw 61 pitches over 4 2/3. The game set a new record for longest postseason game in MLB history, both by innings and minutes. Overall, the Red Sox rotation pitched 10 1/3 innings of relief work in the World Series.
Of course, since 2018, Major League Baseball has implemented the Three-Batter Minimum rule, which will somewhat hamper Cora from repeating the specific pitcher-batter matchups he opted for during October 2018. With two outs in the seventh inning of Game 1 of the World Series, Rodriguez came in to face one batter.
The 2021 Red Sox are decidedly not the 2018 club. But they defied expectations and bounced back from a last-place .400 season in 2020, to finish this regular season tied for second in the division, a .568 team. And as they’ve proven many times over the last two decades, anything can happen in October.