Cora: Year after 'a little bit different emotionally'

ST. PETERSBURG -- A day after the Red Sox were officially eliminated from postseason contention, manager Alex Cora dealt with the reality of many others who have been in his shoes in recent years.

Forget about the fact that no team has repeated as World Series champions since the 2000 Yankees. A more telling stat is that the 2019 Red Sox are the fifth defending champion in the past seven years not to make the playoffs.

The two exceptions are last year’s Astros and the ’17 Cubs.

Cora shed light on a few reasons why it’s so tough for teams to duplicate the pinnacle of success from one season to the next.

“It’s not easy, man. We talk about hangover or whatever. The grind of going through the whole thing is gratifying,” Cora said. “We were talking about it yesterday. We only lost 57 games last year as a group. We were locked in mentally. And then the offseason becomes short.

“Sometimes, it’s great. Give me the short offseason the whole time. As far as preparation and all that, you’re in a rush. I do feel that going into the season, you prepare the right way, you do everything possible, but that first month is very important. You have a target. We talk about it.”

The Red Sox found themselves not executing during a brutal start to the season, and also perhaps failing to match the intensity of their opponents at that point.

“I’m not going to say the name of the pitcher, but there was a pitcher in Game 4 or 5 of the season this year, we had a man at third, two outs in a 0-0 game in the third inning,” Cora said. “He struck somebody out, and the emotion that he showed was kind of like, October-like. It’s not that last year people didn’t want to beat us.

“There’s something about coming in the next year and the level of play on a daily basis, night in and night out, it’s a little bit different emotionally. I don’t know if that’s the reason. I feel like that’s something that I learned this year. It’s different.”

Cora then remembered how up Boston was to face the defending World Series champion Astros last season.

“Last year, when we went to Houston, we were very excited going over there,” Cora said. "When they came to play us at home, it was the same thing. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the reason teams haven’t made it or whatever, but that’s one of the reasons the season is different.”

While Cora has taken a lot of heat for the conservative approach he took with his pitchers in Spring Training, he doesn’t think he had a choice.

Boston’s veteran starting pitchers were completely taxed in October, serving as “rovers” back and forth between the rotation and the bullpen. For the sake of their careers -- and with the hope they would have something left for this October -- Cora felt he had to let them recover in Spring Training.

It didn’t work, as ace Chris Sale and No. 2 starter David Price both had injury-marred and inconsistent seasons, and so, too, did Nathan Eovaldi. Rick Porcello stayed healthy, but he has struggled mightily for much of the season.

Does Cora wish he had done things differently in Spring Training?

“Not at all,” Cora said. “What these guys did last year, you guys lived it. I mean, I still remember Game 3 in Houston, David is in the tub, he calls me in, ‘Hey, come here.’ He said, ‘I’m in the bullpen.’ I said, ‘Yeah, tomorrow.’ He said, ‘No, no, no, I’m in the bullpen tonight.’ The grind and what they went through, it wasn’t easy.

“We structured our Spring Training based on that. It wasn’t that far off from what we did two years ago, and it just happened that we didn’t pitch well.”

Though nobody wanted to miss the playoffs, Cora thinks the extra time off this October could benefit his team going into next year. Cora -- who was the bench coach with the Astros in ’17 before going right into his job with the Red Sox once that World Series ended -- will also have much more time to decompress.

“There’s certain things we’re going to get better at, and we’re taking a look at a few things,” Cora said. “Obviously there’s still a question mark of what’s going to happen with the organization in the upcoming days and weeks or months, you don’t know. But as far as the staff and what we’re doing, I’m already working for next year. Looking forward for a different offseason. It’s been a while since I’ve been home in the beginning of October, but I’ll have plenty of time off to structure a few things that I want to do in the offseason and in Spring Training.”

Worth noting
• Originally, Cora didn’t plan on using Mookie Betts on the turf of Tropicana Field in this series, as the right fielder was coming off of left foot inflammation. But with J.D. Martinez back in the lineup for the first time since Tuesday, Cora changed his plans. Betts started in right and Martinez was the DH.

“We can’t have two DH’s,” Cora said.

• Left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who exited Friday’s game with a left thumb contusion, was out of the lineup on Saturday. The hope, Cora said, is that Benintendi will start Sunday.

• Reliever Heath Hembree, who missed most of the second half with right elbow woes, remains on track to pitch in a game before the season ends. Cora mentioned the possibility of Hembree serving as an opener for his one outing, because it would give him a defined structure.