After losing two games to the Tampa Bay Rays, the Boston Red Sox are in second place in the American League East standings for the first time since June 26. But manager Alex Cora doesn't mind the drop in status heading into August.
"We can say whatever we want or people can say whatever they want about us but we're in this situation right now," Cora said before Sunday's series finale against Tampa Bay. "The goal was for us to play meaningful games during the summer and we're doing that. We've got two more months and we hope it's longer than that obviously. We have to play better. We know that.
"But at the same time this group did an amazing job since day one, they did an amazing job at spring training. I can play the card of like, nobody thought we would be here so we're just playing with house money, but I'm not going to say that. We felt like we have a good team, a good team that had to work for everything that we wanted to accomplish and so far we've done that."
The Red Sox are currently 63-43, good for the third-best record in the American League and fourth-best in Major League Baseball. But they are in the midst of a humbling stretch, dropping four of their last five games after winning six of the seven prior to that.
They'll look to get things back on track in the series finale against the Rays on Sunday at 7:08 p.m. ET.
