Red Sox Notes: Why Win Vs. Twins ‘Very Gratifying’ For Alex Cora

Alex Cora understands the Red Sox did not ultimately win their series against the Minnesota Twins this weekend, but Boston’s manager nevertheless will board the plane happy Sunday evening following a 9-2 victory.

The Red Sox avoided a series sweep against the Twins, who entered with a 12-game win streak. And they did so on the back of a complementary performance including the pitching staff and late-inning offense.

“Some guys became big leaguers this weekend,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage.

Boston’s stable of relievers — Brennan Bernardino, Zack Kelly, Cam Booser, Josh Winckowski and Kenley Jansen — combined to allow one run on four hits in 4 2/3 innings Sunday Cooper Criswell went 4 1/3 innings in the start, another impressive one from the 27-year-old right-hander.

Cora’s sentiments, though, were in regard to the big picture of the series. After all, Bernardino opened Saturday’s game against the Twins and Booser recorded four outs in that eventual 3-1 loss.

“They had to pitch on back-to-backs,” Cora said. “These are the cool ones. I know we lost two out of three, but we played good baseball throughout.

“As a manager, these are very gratifying because you use everybody. You start planning Sunday on Saturday, midway through the game and, ‘How we gonna accomplish this?’ Losing two out of three sucks here, but winning this one is very gratifying. It took a total team effort, coaches did an outstanding job.”

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Here are more notes from Red Sox-Twins:

— Criswell allowed one run on five hits in 4 1/3 innings. Criswell’s performance Sunday came after he recorded scoreless, five-inning starts against both the San Francisco Giants (Tuesday) and Cleveland Guardians (April 24).

“Coop did an outstanding job,” Cora said, praising the fact he got out of a bases loaded jam with nobody out in the second inning. “Changing speed, location, elevating, down in the zone. He made some good pitches.”

— Cora credited Ceddanne Rafaela’s home run to a pregame chat and game of pepper with hitting coach Pete Fatse.

“He needs to find the barrel. He needs to,” Cora said of Rafaela, whose fifth-inning blast put the Red Sox out front 3-1. “He’s such a good athlete that he will. He will find it. But just thinking outside the box. Most of the time it’s the machine at 100 miles per hour, today it was just a good old game of pepper with a hitting coach.”

— Grissom recorded his first hit as a member of the Red Sox, a crucial two-run double in the eighth inning. At the time, it helped the Red Sox take a 5-1 advantage.

“It felt great,” Grissom told NESN’s Jahmai Webster after the game. “I felt like I was hitting the ball good. Not a lot of luck. So, that one I knew should’ve got down. So, it was good to see it get down and get my first one out of the way.”

Cora added of Grissom: “We do believe he’s going to hit for power, but right now we take the hitter and just keep growing.”

— Rob Refsnyder exited Boston’s win in the fifth inning due to hamstring tightness. Cora, however, said it was more precautionary.

“He’s doing OK. He felt like at that moment just come out to avoid something bigger,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage. “It doesn’t seem like an IL thing, but the way things are going here, you never know.”

— The Red Sox benefit from an off day Monday and will kick off a short two-game series against the Atlanta Braves on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 p.m. ET.