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00:00A couple questions yesterday about Rafi Devers and the possibility of playing first base with
00:04very short answers. No, you haven't talked to him about it. No, you don't plan to.
00:08So I guess my follow-up not being there then is, why will you not talk to him about it? Why does
00:13he not make sense to be an option for first base after the Cases? I think where we are right now
00:17with him, you know, he's very comfortable with his role, right? And we asked him to do something
00:21in spring training that, as you guys know, he didn't agree in the beginning. And then,
00:26little by little, he has embraced because he knows the quality of the player that we have
00:31at third base, where we at as a team. I always said that time is our best friend in situations
00:38like this. And, you know, there's two reasons, you know, like Tristan got hurt Saturday, you
00:43know, and we got some capable players. Romy's having a good season. Toro, you saw him yesterday.
00:48He put some good at-bat. So I'm not saying we'll never have that conversation, but I think
00:53for now, where we at, I like Rafi as a DH. I like him as my DH. He's, you take away the first
01:00weekend of the season. He's been one of the best hitters in the big leagues, and he's doing an
01:04outstanding job. You know, I guess I just, just to follow that up, because, you know, Craig Breslow
01:08said, or basically alluded to the fact that all scenarios are on the table, and particularly about
01:13possibility of Rafi be playing first. So you just, you just said it's, it's not maybe a hard and fast
01:19kind of no at this point. So you're still open to possibly, at a certain time down the
01:24road, having Rafi maybe play first, if that's what the team is. I mean, to be fair, you know,
01:29with the player, I think, like I said, he's getting used to this position, and he's been
01:33really good. I know that people think that you just stick him up first and see what happens,
01:39you know. And I actually had a conversation with my brother today about different scenarios,
01:44all that. And if you think about it, there's three players. Well, everybody has to be involved
01:49in the game, right? Defensively, you have to. But the catcher, the pitcher, and the first baseman,
01:54they have to be locked in. And it's not that easy. You know, positioning is a lot different than in
01:58the past. I think in the past, you just say, okay, put him on first base and just catch throws.
02:03Now, if you look at it, we play the first baseman off, and there's different alignments.
02:09You know, we can say, okay, Rafi's going to play first. It's not going to happen tomorrow.
02:12It's not going to happen in five days, you know. So, there's a process, and it's a long process,
02:17too. But like I said, for the player, to be fair with him, I think we're in a good spot with him,
02:22where he's at mentally, and with his process, and, you know, getting used to what he's doing.
02:27And in my opinion, to throw something at him right now, it'll be very unfair.
02:32So, Kostas is out for the season, and obviously, doing well. Quick question on that. How's the
02:36recovery going so far? Painful. You know, I talked to him yesterday. It's just so recent,
02:42right? I think the process started today, as far as, like, the rehab. But one thing about him,
02:48man, it's amazing. You know, like, you talk to him, and the first thing he talks is what happened
02:53on the field, you know. I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. How are you doing? That's the most important
02:57thing. He's in good hands. I think our trainers are one of the best, if not the best, in the big
03:03leagues, you know. And he'll be back whenever it is, you know. He'll be back, and he's going to be okay.
03:08But I imagine you guys are not just looking for a piecemeal solution to first base. You're looking
03:13for some sort of, like, long-term answer. I don't know if there's some sort of papal conclave that
03:18happens where you guys all get together and try to think about who's going to come over there at
03:21first, or if maybe you're going to give other guys consideration. Like, for example, have you
03:26talked to anybody else on staff? Maybe a Trevor Story, or Christian Campbell, since he's had a
03:30little positional versatility. No, we haven't done that. But one of the things, and as you guys
03:38know, he works in sports and works in everything, right? You have conversations, you know. Not
03:42everybody needs to know what's going on in there, right? And me and Craig, we have a lot
03:48of respect. We like working with each other, and I think the common goal here is to win the
03:52World Series. And we understand that there's a different team today than what it was Saturday,
03:57right? Before the season started, we were talking about Tristan Casas hitting fourth,
04:01playing first base, and hitting 35 home runs, right? 40, actually. 40. And he's not going to
04:08be able to do that. So we have to make adjustments. It doesn't have to be right now. We'll explore
04:14every option, and then we'll make decisions based on the team. So you mentioned that it is fresh,
04:19and it doesn't have to be right now. But do you put a goal, like, out there by this, you know,
04:24by midseason, I want to have that position settled? Or do you just sort of roll with
04:27the nightly punches?
04:28Well, I'll tell you what, if Romy Gonzalez still hitting 350, then he's the answer, right?
04:33He's a good defender. He's a good athlete. You know, the one thing about this, obviously,
04:38the negative, we don't have Tristan, you know, the hitter, the power. If we're going to take
04:44something positive out of this bad situation, Romy's very athletic. We can be more aggressive
04:51running the bases. He's a good defender. And he's actually putting good at bat. So hopefully,
04:56he's the answer, you know, and we don't have to explore any other venue. But, you know,
05:02we'll keep talking about it. Alex, changing gears just a little bit, you know, so far,
05:064-9 in one run game. So not where you want. Over the weekend against Minnesota, a couple months
05:12that were effective. Is that maybe a prelude to maybe more, you know, small ball or a shift
05:18in philosophy when it comes to those tight games that you've been in? Well, especially
05:21with the top four hitters that we have. You know, the close games, you have to win. We
05:28talk about, you have to win the games that you have to win, right? And if you go to Cleveland,
05:33we were up 3-0 in Tanner's outing. We lost that game. We lost a two in Toronto. We lost one
05:39against Minnesota. The hammy bond was on his own, and he's very dynamic. He actually, something
05:46we've been talking about to him for a while, man. Like, when you run like that, you can
05:51avoid the 0-4-10, 0-4-14. You just drop one down, and probably you're going to be safe
05:56at first. There were two sack bunts over the weekend, just trying to maximize the top
06:00of the lineup. I know they brought a lefty for Jaron and Rafi, but I truly believe that
06:05those three up there, with many scoring position, they should cash in, right? And obviously, we're
06:11not swinging the bat the way we're capable. If you look at us, we're very inconsistent.
06:15We are. We scored 10. We scored one. We scored seven. We don't score. And it's been going
06:20on early in the season. So maximizing opportunities is something that last weekend, I look at it
06:28and we have to do it. But whenever we get going offensively, then we just let him do
06:33the thing, and we can score runs in bunches. Consistently inconsistent was the line I gave
06:38you a couple weeks ago about how the season's been thus far, and it seems to be ebbing and
06:42flowing like that as well. And earlier, just cut to two weeks ago, Slayton was dropping
06:47the hook late in games, looked unhittable. My guy, Garrett Whitlock, I always call him
06:51right-handed Andrew Miller. You can do so much with him. And they were cruising. And then
06:55last week, the stumble, tough at-bats against Vladdy. And then Sunday's game, it's almost
06:59like it was a print and repeat of what had happened a few days prior. What happened in
07:03the Sunday meltdown with Whitlock and Slayton?
07:05I think putting guys away with two strikes. If you look at the series in Toronto, they
07:10got three hits on breaking balls with two strikes. Same thing happened the next day, the last
07:15day of the series. And it happened against Minnesota too. And this is about execution. I don't think
07:21it's about game planning. You know, we have to be better in those counts. And if we have
07:27to bounce it, we have to bounce it. You know, these guys, they're too good, especially with
07:32slow stuff in the zone. You know, everybody's geared up for the fastball because they have
07:38to do it, right? 98-99. And with two strikes, you either go up, up, up, or down, down, down,
07:44make them chase. I think the best bullpens in the big leagues from the seventh inning on,
07:50teams don't put the ball in play against them. They get their punch outs. We're really good
07:54about inducing swing and misses. We're not great at getting strikeouts. So hopefully,
08:00it's going to even out because the stuff is there. But we have to do a better job executing
08:04pitches. Red Sox manager Alex Cora with WEI Afternoons at Fenway Park. You just mentioned
08:10the best bullpens sit down lineups in 7-8-9. Your offense has been front loaded in games,
08:15the batting averages, the splits, first three innings, last three innings. Aberrational? Is
08:20there a reason for that? Put a finger on that? Concern?
08:22Concern? You can look at us being dominant early on. I don't feel that way. I think starters
08:30are going six innings against us. And when they go six, you get 7-8-9, and it's the high
08:35leverage guys. We can do a better job putting starters away. For example, on Sunday, we scored
08:42early. The pitch count was up, but their guy went six. And then after that, they lined up
08:46their relievers, and they did an amazing job. Bullpens at this level, they're elite. It doesn't
08:51matter if you have 22 wins or you only have five. You know, they're really good because the stuff
08:56is great. I think we have to do a better job getting to the low leverage relievers, right?
09:02And that's where the fun starts, and we haven't done that this season.
09:05You mentioned the starting pitching, you know, 16 games in a row where they went five-plus innings
09:10except for last night. That was an issue, the starting pitching to start the season. It feels
09:16like it's even done. Just your thoughts overall on your starting pitching.
09:19They've done an outstanding job. I saw that stat about quality starts, you know, first time
09:26that has happened since 17, I think it was. And if you look at the games, yeah, it makes
09:31sense. You know, we've been in games in the sixth inning and seventh inning because of what
09:35they have done. This season, as a staff, we've been very aggressive letting them go because
09:40if you look at them, when they get to the sixth, they've been efficient. Their stuff is really good
09:45and they've done their job. And that's the key of surviving 162. If your starters give you six,
09:52you're going to be in a good spot. Obviously, the bullpen has a struggle as of late, but things
09:58should level out and we should be okay. On the starter front, any concern with Crochet with the
10:04glancing ball that hit him on Sunday? No, no, he's okay. It's funny, I go to the mound with our
10:10trainer and we're very concerned. And he's not bleeding. I went back to Rocky IV, you know,
10:18Ivan Drago. I'm like, this guy's a machine. But he did a good job, grinded through it. He wasn't
10:24feeling great either before the game. He was a little bit under the weather. So five minutes was
10:28perfect for us. We had our guys lined up. It just didn't happen. And how's Walker Buehler doing?
10:33He's doing okay. He played catch yesterday. He's going to do it again today. Probably a bullpen over
10:39the weekend. We're shooting probably for the end of the Detroit series or the first series back when
10:47we come from Detroit, which is Atlanta or the Mets, I think it is. You've been very consistent
10:52with your messaging. We're a good baseball team. We're going to be a good baseball team. But
10:56Ted and I, the old Parcells term is you are what your record says you are. And right now you're a
11:01sub-500 baseball team. How do you sort of bring those two ideas together?
11:05Well, when you look at the division, we're two and a half games back. It is what it is,
11:10right? We're playing under 500, but the division has been bad. You know, everybody thought that we
11:16were going to be the NL West, right? Everybody playing over 500. It hasn't happened. You can call
11:22it luck or this is the season we're playing in, right? And we're just two and a half games back
11:27and we haven't played good baseball. Masataka Yoshida, it still feels like the shoulder.
11:36For him to come up to the big leagues or start playing, get on the roster, does he have to be
11:41able to play in the field as well as DH? Yeah, I mean, he has to play on the field where we're at
11:47right now. He just had a shot two days ago. He's not even swinging now. You know, we have to make
11:54sure the shot, you know, does his job, you know, so we just have to be patient with him.
11:59And I got to, I'll, I'll eschew asking about the kids down in Worcester just because, you know,
12:04I know there's obviously no room for them right now. I've seen the highlights. They're looking
12:06great. But last night, it has got to kill you watching Nate Evaldi pitch so well against you
12:12guys time and again, knowing how important he was to you in 2018. He seems to always save his best
12:17stuff up against you. And now with Mally tonight, it's not going to be any easier to get the
12:20offense back on track. We've been facing good pitching too. I mean, people talk about the
12:25schedule and playing teams on the 500. We face Barrios. We face Ryan. We face Nate. This guy
12:31today, he's a monster too. So he's not easy. And I told you guys a few weeks ago, and this is
12:37all over the place, you know, like there's good pitching in the big leagues. We just have to be
12:42better with Nate. Hate when he pitches against us. Hate it, you know, but he's my guy, man. What he did
12:48for us in 18, second to none, obviously, all those guys from the starting rotation. And
12:54he cares about the city. He still loves it. It just mattered that, you know, Arlington is
12:58very close to Houston, and that's home for him. Yep. All right, Alex, appreciate you joining
13:02us as you do every week. And good luck tonight. Winning streak starts with one, right?
13:06Let's go. Thank you.