The Boston Red Sox went into their six-game road trip against the Chicago White Sox and Seattle Mariners without much of their typical players due to COVID-19.
Nevertheless, they persisted.
Boston went 3-3 over that stretch and still is fighting for its postseason life after Toronto caught fire at the perfect time. The Blue Jays, the Red Sox and the New York Yankees currently all are tied for the two American League Wild Card spots, but Boston would be left in the dark if the postseason began today due to percentage points.
Still, going .500 against two tough AL teams without Chris Sale, Christian Arroyo and Matt Barnes, to name a few, has helped keep the Red Sox hanging around the standings. For Alex Cora, it's felt a lot like the postseason of late.
"It's playoff baseball. It feels that way," Cora told reporters, per WEEI's Rob Bradford. "It's fun, to be honest with you. When you give your all and then at the end of the game you're exhausted for the right reasons -- it's not COVID or whatever -- it's good. You've got to give them credit. They went on this road trip knowing it was going to be a tough one. Lose a tough one on Sunday, 2-1. Then we came here. We didn't play great, but we were able to get two out of three against a good baseball team. We did a good job against their bullpen. Their bullpen is one of the best in the big leagues, and we were really good. Hopefully, we can figure out the lefty starters. That will be good for us, but if we keep swinging bats the way we did the last part of the game, we should be OK."
The Red Sox return to Fenway Park on Friday for the final homestand of the regular season. They'll host the Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets and Yankees. All eight contests will be crucial, must-win games if they want to play deep into October.
