Alex Cora Offers Some Reassurance After Red Sox Pummel Rays

One win doesn’t not mean the Boston Red Sox are fully back on track, but a decision as emphatic as Wednesday’s is a key step in the right direction.

The Sox had lost six straight to the American League East division-leading Tampa Bay Rays and had been slumping in just about every area of the game. But they rebounded in a big way Wednesday with a 20-8 victory over Tampa in the middle contest of a three-game set at Fenway Park.

Perhaps the most-concerning part of the Red Sox’s recent stretch was their inability to bring runners home from scoring position. They were doing fine getting guys to second and third, but after that their bats had gone quiet.

Work remains to be done for the Red Sox to hold onto a wild card spot — and their sights are set on the American League East crown, anyways — but manager Alex Cora tried putting things into perspective Wednesday night.

“There’s some times that you hit .400 with men in scoring position, and there’s times that you hit .190 like we’re doing now,” Cora told reporters, via The Boston Globe. “So when everything goes back to reality, we should be a good offensive team. We should be OK. We’re going to be OK.”

As of Thursday morning, the Red Sox trail the Rays by four games in the division entering the final contest of their current series. Boston owns the second wild card spot and is two games clear of the third-place New York Yankees, while trailing the top wild card team, the Oakland Athletics, by one game.

The Rays-Red Sox rubber match is set for 4:10 p.m. ET on NESN, with pregame coverage beginning at 3.