Red Sox Manager Alex Cora Shares Stance On Biggest Rivalry

BOSTON — The Red Sox and Yankees have a longtime history as one of the most heated rivalries in all of sports, making every matchup, whether it’d be regular or postseason, a must-watch.

Being part of that rivalry, both as a player and at the helm, plus having plenty of outside archrival experience elsewhere, Alex Cora offered his two cents. Instead of leaning on Boston-New York, Cora shared a different rivalry when asked which he finds to be the biggest ahead of Friday night’s contest against the Yankees at Fenway Park.

“Puerto Rico-Dominican (Republic). That’s real,” Cora said. “That’s a intense one. I’ll put that one. In every sport. Volleyball, basketball, baseball. Puerto Ricans against Dominicans, yeah. That’s bragging rights.”

Both Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic have a longtime competitive sporting feud, most notably on full display during the World Baseball Classic. Each native lands to a handful of Hall of Fame big leaguers, plus futures, Cora, who was originally born in Puerto Rico, understands the intensity firsthand. As did he during the Los Angeles Dodgers-San Francisco Giants and Miami-UF (during his college days), which Cora also referenced.

Nevertheless, with the Red Sox and Yankees both teeter-tottering at the bottom end of the American League East this season, coupled with three postseason meetings in the past 19 years, Cora has still felt the rivalry being alive and well. Boston has the upper hand in its last three playoff matchups with New York, two of which have resulted in a World Series victory.

“When it’s the last four or five years people might be down, but we have played in two playoffs since ’18,” Cora explained. “Before that, I don’t know. It happened in ’04 and then after that, we didn’t play them in ’07, ’13 they didn’t play, right? When they won the World Series in ’09, they didn’t play us. It all depends how you see it, but since ’18, played in two series already and that was cool. … It was very intense.”