Red Sox Notes: Alex Cora Optimistic Team ‘Getting Closer To Who We Are’

The Red Sox are above .500 for the first time in the 2019 Major League Baseball season.

Boston began the year 1-1 and never had a winning record, something fans certainly weren’t used to. But that all changed Friday night against the team the Red Sox began their 2019 campaign against with a 14-1 thumping of the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park.

It was a full-team effort to get to 20-19, with Eduardo Rodriguez tossing a gem, and the offense finding its groove. Only Michael Chavis and Christian Vazquez were held hitless on the night, while four batters had multiple hits.

Manager Alex Cora noted earlier in the week that the “season starts Friday,” and is happy with the progress his team has made over its last stretch of games.

“We have a good team,” he said on NESN’s Red Sox postgame coverage. “I’ve been saying all along since Tampa we feel that we’re putting good at-bats, we’re walking a lot more, we’re controlling the strike zone, was just a matter of getting that big hit. …It feels like we’re getting closer to who we are.”

Despite playing better of late and putting up solid wins, the skipper still sees room for improvement.

“We did it without playing our best baseball,” he said. “I think we still can do better. The goal is to get to five (games) over .500 and so on and so on. And that’s how you do it. You can’t start looking at 10 or 20. It’s by stages. The next goal is to get to five over .500 as soon as possible and then we go from there.”

Here are some other notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Mariners game:

— Rodriguez needed just nine pitches to get out of the first, marking it the fourth time this season the southpaw needed fewer than 10 pitches to get out of an inning.

The pitcher had another solid outing, tossing seven scoreless, hitless innings while giving up just one walk and striking out five.

— Rafael Devers had a big night at the plate, going 3-for-5 with one home run and four RBIs.

The 22-year-old said through a translator to NESN’s Guerin Austin after the game that he “feels very comfortable” lately and has “been working on things.”

— Tyler Thornburg added to his recent struggles Friday night when he gave up an RBI-double to Edwin Encarnacion. His numbers over his last nine appearances aren’t pretty.

— Mitch Moreland continued to be a force at the plate, belting his team-leading 11th home run of the season in the third inning. He drove in four runs in the win.

— Andrew Benintendi had a three-hit night, scoring three runs and driving one in.