Red Sox
Two days after agreeing to a lucrative contract extension, Alex Cora proved why he’s definitely worth the MLB's second-highest managerial contract.
His decision to make use of Wilyer Abreu as a pinch hitter as a substitute of Tyler O'Neill within the eighth inning was one in every of the explanations the Red Sox got here back and beat the New York Yankees on Friday night.
Trailing by one run firstly of the eighth after Ceddanne Rafaela hit a large home run within the seventh to chop the sport to 7-6, Cora decided to present Abreu a probability to bat against the Yankees' Clay Holmes. The decision got here after Connor Wong made a game-winning 10-pitch at-bat to get on base for the pinch hitter.
Abreu replaced O'Neill, who began Boston's scoring drive with a sacrifice fly in the primary inning. Cora preferred a duel between a left-hander and a right-hander; Abreu is left-handed, while O'Neill is right-handed.
Boston's manager typically benches Abreu against left-handed pitchers, which is why he was not within the starting lineup for Friday's game against New York's Nestor Cortes. The outfielder has a .277 batting average against right-handers this season and has hit all eight of his home runs against such pitchers in 2024.
Abreu continued his dominance against right-handers on Friday together with his RBI double against Holmes. He hit a line drive to center field on the second pitch of the at-bat to tie the sport at seven runs.
In the following at-bat, Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run single that gave the Red Sox the game-winning 9-7 lead.
Cora spoke about Yoshida's performance on the plate shortly after the sport.
“He swung the bat well,” he said. “He's healthy and rested. We know what kind of hitter he can be. … He swung the bat well in Colorado and we like the at-bats.”
The Red Sox finally scored five unanswered runs within the seventh and eighth innings on Friday, marking the team's sixth comeback after trailing greater than seven innings within the last 18 games.
image credit : www.boston.com