With both the Bruins and Celtics officially in their respective offseasons, Fenway Park is now center stage in Boston as the sports venue with all eyes on the Red Sox.
It wasn't supposed to be this way, but here we are. Bruins and Celtics fans are disappointed and Red Sox manager Alex Cora echoed those sentiments when he met with reporters prior to taking the field against the Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night.
"I don't like it. I was wishing for both teams to keep playing and have a parade," Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN's pregame coverage. "They had some great seasons, and obviously, at the end, it didn't work out for their organizations. For the city."
Barring any offseason moves or other major news, hockey and basketball are in the rearview mirror for now and the focus of the city and its fans lands squarely on baseball. With that being said, Cora said his team is up for the challenge.
"At one point, we knew that it was us and we just got to keep playing good baseball," Cora said. "We're gonna put the ball in play. Our starters are solid. The relievers are doing an outstanding job. We play actually good defense. So just keep the course."
The Red Sox (28-25) entered Tuesday night's matchup three games behind the Houston Astros in the wild-card race in the American League but have shown they are capable of stringing together some wins and are 11-5-1 in series play. In four of the five series losses, the Red Sox were swept by the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tampa Bay Rays, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Angels.
"When you look back, we had four horrible series the whole season," Cora said. "They put us in a spot that you lose all those games, right? But the overall thing has been it's been okay. Can we get better? Of course, we can get better but I don't think it is that bad or is that great. It's kind of right in the middle."
Historically, the AL East has been a tough division each season, but this year, all five teams are above .500 in winning percentage so climbing into a wild card spot may not solely lie on Boston's bats; they may need some help around the league with other teams handing the leaders some losses.
"We play in the toughest division in baseball though," Cora said. "There's another division that has four teams over .500 too -- the West and it's where baseball wanted to be as far as like parity and they got it."
Following the interleague series with the Reds, Boston will play a four-game series with the division-leading Tampa Bay Rays, including a doubleheader on Saturday.
