It’s getting late early for the Boston Red Sox. The Sox are coming off five straight losses, including a series sweep to the Milwaukee Brewers, and will open a three-game series against the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park on Friday night. At 27-31 and 9.5 games behind the New York Yankees in the American League East, Boston already has a lot of ground to make up entering June.
For a team that has made the postseason once since winning the World Series in 2018, urgency isn’t a strong enough word. When a team goes through a dry spell like this, it’s often the manager who takes the fall. But even with the Red Sox’ struggles, it seems Alex Cora doesn’t feel like he’s on the hot seat, even though things are definitely getting warmer in Boston.
Alex Cora Doesn’t Think His Job is in Danger After Red Sox’ Disastrous May
Cora appeared on “WEEI Afternoons with Andy Hart, Nick “Fitzy” Stevens, and Ted Johnson on Thursday and was asked about his job security. While the Red Sox manager said he was not concerned, he did acknowledge that his team hasn’t been playing up to their capabilities after posting a 10-16 record in the month of May.
“I feel like every day we go out there and we’re doing our best,” Cora said via Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “It hasn’t happened for us. You look at the season and having conversations with some people this morning, I was like, ‘It’s a weird one right?’ because it feels like you’re in every game but it’s not going your way. Just a tough stretch for us and for me as a manager and we’ve just got to be ready for tomorrow. We’ve got a big series coming up here in Atlanta. Hopefully, we can win two out of three or sweep it and get this bad taste out of our mouth.”
Some of Cora’s comments make sense considering all that has happened to the Red Sox. It started when Alex Bregman signed and Rafael Devers refused to move to the designated hitter. It continued when 2024 All-Star Tanner Houck fell off a cliff and several injuries shipwrecked the Red Sox rotation. Injuries to Bregman and Triston Casas, along with another Devers firestorm, threw another wrench into Cora’s plans, and it feels like everyone is waiting on top prospects Kristian Campbell, Marcelo Mayer, and Roman Anthony to save the day.
But while Cora can point the finger everywhere else, he also can point it directly into the mirror. The Sox are 6-15 in one-run games, including two of their three losses to the Brewers this week. While Cora can point to a three-year contract extension signed last July, the mistakes are piling up and could put Boston in a hole they can’t climb out of.
“It’s not early,” Corra admitted. “I’ve been saying that… It’s the first third of the season we have played and we’re playing under .500. We have fallen behind a lot of games in the division. Obviously, there’s a lot of ways to make it to the playoffs. But if we’re going to talk about playoffs, we just have to play better. I think the first goal is to get back to .500 and start winning more games.”
For a team that has the 11th-youngest roster by average age this season, it feels like a simple message. But Cora and the Red Sox could be in danger if they don’t start winning games soon.