This season, Alex Cora has been a good manager. There's no doubt he knows the game of baseball. He is a former player with 14 years of experience playing a grueling 162-game (sometimes more) schedule, but this is his first year playing the leading role.
It is his first time being a manager with only one year as a major league coaching under his belt (bench for the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros). It is also his first year managing in Boston and the Red Sox currently have the best record in baseball with a 77-34 record, 43 games above .500, and are 7.5 games head of the Yankees in the A.L. East standings. They appear to be heading to their best record in franchise history and the favorites to win the World Series.
But put this into a little perspective. There are many parallels and similarities between the first seasons of Alex Cora and his predecessor, John Farrell.
Think back to five years ago, 2013, the last World Series title for the Sox. If you recall, the Sox also had the best record in baseball - a 97-65 mark - tied with the St. Louis Cardinals, who they would go on to defeat in six games that October.
Both the 2013 and 2018 squads packed a 1-2 punch atop their starting rotation. The 2013 team was lead by Jon Lester (remember him) and John Lackey (who endeared himself to Red Sox Nation that season after a less than stellar beginning). In 2018, the team has four hurlers with double figure win totals. Despite, recently, landing on the D.L. for precautionary reasons, the tall, lanky southpaw from southeastern Florida, Chris Sale is the ace of the staff. Former 2016 Cy Young Award winner, Rick Porcello, leads the team in wins, while look at this, David Price also has 11 wins. Koji Uehara was the dominant closer that solidified the back-end of the bullpen of 2013, while the flame-throwing Craig Kimbrel is playing that role in 2018.
The offensive production is nearly identical. This season the Sox lead the majors with a a .270 batting average, compare that to the team's .277 average in 2013 - second in all of baseball that year. The only team that had a higher batting average that year was Detroit and we all know how their season ended. In 2013, David Ortiz was the main source of offensive output for the team with support from Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Mike Napoli. The Sox versatile outfielder Mookie Betts picked up the torch and has carried the Sox offensive with a supporting cast of the newly acquired J.D. Martinez, Xander Bogaerts, and the young, impressionable outfielder Andrew Benintendi.
Also don't forgot about the key mid-season pick ups to bolster the roster. Shane Victorino proved to be an extremely valuable addition to the offensive line up in 2013.
He didn't just get fans to sing along to his plate music, but do you remember his
grand slam in game six of the ALCS that year?
One could say the same thing in 2018 about Steve Pearce. Not only is great because he has the greatest birthday on the planet (April 13), but he has already inked his name in Red Sox folklore. He can hit .200 for the rest of year and will still be endeared by Red Sox fans for hitting four homeruns against the Yankees in less than 24 hours -
a three homerun night on August 2 and two-run blast over the Monster on the G.O.A.T's birthday.
The Sox picked up Jake Peavy from the White Sox at the trading deadline in 2013. Peavy was a much needed depth in the rotation down the stretch that season and something they needed as they went into the "best-of-seven" championship series and World Series. Right now, the addition of Nathan Eovaldi to the pitching staff appears to be that type of addition.
And last, but certainly not least, both the 2013 and 2018 teams had (and have) something to prove. The year prior to 2013 the Sox were DFL, coming off the Bobby Valentine Era (or error) and their "chicken and beer" fiasco that ended 2011, so they had to prove they were a different team in 2013. And they did.
This season is no different. After being swept out of the playoffs in 2016 - a terrible way to ended the magnificent career of David Ortiz - and only managing one win against the Astros in the ALDS in 2017, the 2018 Red Sox have something to prove. They have to prove to the fans and the city that when it's October, they have come to play.
So, while in his first season steering the ship of major league franchise, Alex Cora has been a good manager, he has not been great. John Farrell went through very similar experience his first season in Boston. Don't you forget that.
