The Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are two of baseball’s best teams, and whenever the two sides meet, it is sure to be a clash of the titans.
And while it is logical that a team would want its best starters to get the ball in those much-anticipated matchups, you won’t see Sox manager Alex Cora trying to adjust his starting rotation so that his top pitchers take the hill against Yankees.
And his reason is pretty simple: Every team in Major League Baseball is good.
During an appearance on Buster Olney’s podcast on ESPN, Cora explained why he lets his rotation cycle through as it normally would when they play New York.
“Nah, no. I think sometimes it’s the other way around,” Cora told Olney of finagling his rotation for the Yankees. “You’ve got to make sure you win every series, and sometimes people get caught up on lining up everybody for the Yankees or the (Houston) Astros or the (Cleveland) Indians. But there’s a lot of good teams out there, we just witnessed that with the Oakland A’s. The A’s went to New York, they lost two out of three but they were in line to win two out of three. They came to Boston, they beat us two out of three, they go to Toronto, they sweep (the Blue Jays).
“So there’s a lot of good teams out there,” Cora continued. “We’re going to play one this week, the (Tampa Bay) Rays. They went to the West Coast and did a good job, they have good pitching, they’re swinging the bat well. If you don’t get ready on a daily basis and try to win what’s in front of you, that is that series, you’re going to be in trouble.”
Certainly a valid point.
Either way, the Red Sox have fared fine enough against the Yankees this season, with the two sides splitting their season series at 3-3 so far.
