Why Red Sox’s Last Homestand At Fenway Park ‘Means A Lot’

There’s no place like home.

But for the Boston Red Sox, there also is no putting their feet up when they come back from their West Coast road trip. There’s work to do.

“Not too many people thought the last homestand of the season was going to mean something,” manager Alex Cora said Wednesday after the Red Sox’s win over the Seattle Mariners. “Now it means a lot. Hopefully, it’s going to be fun Friday and the rest of the week and we can take care of business.”

Boston has two days off between the series finale against Seattle and a nine-game stretch against the Baltimore Orioles, New York Mets and New York Yankees.

It’s imperative that the Red Sox use their home crowd to their advantage to try and make up ground in the American League standings that was lost right before the All-Star break.

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They’re looking forward to the challenge.

“I know that ever since the All-Star break a lot of people have been criticizing and stuff like that, but this team has continued to work and continue to push themselves the entire time and not given up,” pitcher Tanner Houck said Wednesday.

“I know that they’re just as excited as everyone else to get this win and come back home. The team’s extremely excited to be back, be at Fenway, have all the fans and fan support. So to have that going home for a few days, it’ll be great and I’m excited to see that energy that continues to get brought.”

Boston has the second-best home record in the AL East at 44-29 at Fenway Park. But in the standings, they’re technically a few percentage points behind the Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays in the Wild Card race.