Alex Cora’s suggestion that Red Sox could be MLB’s best team is not as crazy as it sounds

It’s probably a little soon to take a victory lap, but the Red Sox are clearly feeling good about themselves these days.

What a turnaround this has been.

Six months ago, Alex Cora was in the process of taking over a team that put its own fans to sleep. Boston, a city that so often lives and dies with its beloved baseball team, didn’t even bother tuning into the games. The play on the field was putrid. Ratings plummeted. And the town had become rightfully apathetic.

And yet here we are, with the Red Sox knocking off Jacob deGrom to get to 16-9, best record in the majors (the Dodgers are also 16-9), and a manager that isn’t afraid to let everyone know how he feels about it.

“We have our own inside joke about power rankings,” Cora said. “We treat it like college baseball. I told Xander (Bogaerts) before the game, we beat this guy, (deGrom), we might be No. 1 in the nation in the upcoming days.”

Does Cora have the best team baseball? It’s debatable.

His club ranks No. 5 in runs per game (4.88), No. 1 in batting average (.267), No. 1 in OPS (.772), No. 9 in ERA (3.66), No. 13 in WHIP (1.26) and No. 21 in fielding percentage (.982).

The Dodgers won it all last year, added big names in the winter and look as good as always. The A’s just had a 13-game winning streak. The Padres and Yankees are probably a lot better than their current records. We’re expecting more from the White Sox, Astros and Rays too.

Had Cora said something about his team being No. 1 in the nation four weeks ago, he’d have been laughed off the esplanade and tossed into the Charles River.

Wednesday, it wasn’t all that crazy.

Cora said it’s just a “silly” thing to talk about, and then sidestepped the question when asked if he was serious about thinking his team was the best team in baseball.

“No, I went to college, I know how it works,” he said. “I don’t know how we jumped from 20 in the nation to No. 4. That’s a big jump. I don’t know who was voting in that. I went to Miami and that’s not possible. You can’t go from No. 20 to No. 4 in just one week. That’s not true.”

It appears Cora was talking about the rankings from ESPN’s Buster Olney, who tweeted a list three days ago entitled, “This Week’s Super Unofficial Top 10 from here.”

According to Olney, the Dodgers were at No. 1, Padres at No. 2, A’s at No. 3 and Red Sox at No. 4.

“We just feel we’re a good baseball team,” Cora said. “We’ve been feeling this for a while. We have room to improve. There’s a lot of stuff we have to keep going. I think defense, solid, the at-bats the last week, we need to get better. But we just feel we have a good baseball team.”

And why shouldn’t they?

The Red Sox just went into New York to play a Mets team that pitches very well but doesn’t hit, and the Red Sox, who typically are the exact opposite, beat the Mets at their own game.

Garrett Richards shined in a 2-1 win on Tuesday, and Nick Pivetta out-pitched deGrom, the best pitcher on the planet, in a 1-0 win on Wednesday.

It was National League baseball at its best, and the Red Sox played it beautifully, right down to J.D. Martinez’s highlight-reel throw and Pivetta’s 10-pitch at-bat against deGrom.

That the Red Sox pitching staff shut down the Mets isn’t too surprising; deGrom has been the Mets best hitter (seriously) and their offense ranks 27th in OPS (.671).

The Sox have pitched well all year, though.

Ten of the 16 pitchers they’ve used were part of last year’s staff, the one that needed a strong finish to avoid ending the year with one of the worst ERAs by any big league team this millennium. Thanks to a solid final few weeks, the Sox ended 2020 with a 5.58 ERA.

They have a 3.66 ERA after Wednesday.

The offense is largely being driven by the same cast of characters from a year ago, too.

The big difference, of course, is Cora.

You can see it on the field in so many ways. Wednesday, it was evident in their approach against deGrom, who had entered the game having allowed just one earned run in 29 innings while striking out 50 batters.

Xander Bogaerts, Christian Vazquez and Rafael Devers each collected doubles off him for the Sox’ only three hits. They waited for pitches up in the zone and took level swings to let deGrom’s velocity work against him.

And it was evident in their confidence.

“I think I’m just as good as deGrom,” Pivetta said of his pregame mentality in an attempt to pump himself up. “He’s an incredible pitcher of course, but I have to put myself on that level with that same confidence. I can’t put anybody higher than I am.”

The Red Sox may not be No. 1, and they certainly don’t have anyone like Jacob deGrom. But they’re in the conversation.

So far, they’re the surprise team of the season.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3gNEMoc