It would have been easy for Alex Cora to sugarcoat things Wednesday night in Toronto.
The Red Sox were eliminated from postseason contention via a 6-1 loss to the Blue Jays, which halted a Boston win streak at four games. Cora's club, which has three games left on its 2024 schedule, will miss the MLB playoffs for the third consecutive year.
Moral victories and excuses were readily available for Cora after the Red Sox's dreams of playing deep into October vanished. Boston exceeded expectations by playing meaningful baseball into the season's final week, and it did so despite dealing with key injuries all campaign long. The future also remains bright for the Red Sox, who have a handful of supremely talented prospects waiting in the wings.
But Cora didn't set up shop on the bright side when his side fell out of the playoff race. The veteran manager made it clear his team missed an opportunity.
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"Our goal was to make it to the playoffs," Cora told reporters, per MLB.com. "It didn’t happen, but it's a good learning experience for those kids over there. I mean, at one point it felt like we were a playoff-caliber team, and then we missed the opportunity. Let's put it that way. You look around, you look at the teams that are fighting, we had it right there and we blew it."
Cora is right. Look at the Tigers, who were an afterthought in the playoff conversation for the majority of the regular season. Detroit played its best baseball at the right time and now appears bound for the postseason, while Boston struggled with inconsistency in the second half and will be forced to watch next month's action from home.
The skipper's remarks also should help establish a standard for a new era of the Red Sox. "Good" seasons shouldn't fly in Boston, where Cora won a World Series in his first season as a manager. The expectation year in and year out should be legitimately competing for championships, and the Red Sox might be poised to do that thanks in part to youngsters rising through the system.
It shouldn't be all doom and gloom for Boston heading into the offseason. The Red Sox weren't a laughing stock this year, even though many prognosticators expected them to be. But missing the playoffs clearly didn't sit well with Cora, and it shouldn't sit well with the fans or anyone else in the organization either.
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Featured image via Eric Canha/Imagn Images
