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00:00Good afternoon, Alex. How are we doing?
00:01I'm doing good. Really good.
00:02So, I've got to get right to it.
00:04Are you a little concerned that the seat could be getting a little hot
00:07now that you know you've got a 2-0 bench coach turned interim manager behind you?
00:11Or, perhaps, what about this?
00:13Are you now going to be the opening manager for the Red Sox?
00:15That'd be great, right? I can do that.
00:18I think me and Ramon, we've been together since 2018.
00:22I think he's the only other coach left from that team.
00:26Yep.
00:26I know, Ramon, since 1996, we started playing winter ball.
00:30No way.
00:31And he has a great mind.
00:34He understands how we do things here.
00:38To be honest with you, on Monday, I just called him to talk about something else
00:43other than baseball.
00:44Yesterday, I got thrown out.
00:46He knew what he had to do, and it was a great –
00:49I mean, we won the series, and hopefully we can sweep them tonight.
00:51Heck, yeah.
00:52Just to give you a heads up, we have our third host who's at home,
00:54so he'll be chiming in as well, Alex.
00:56I just want to let you know.
00:57But last night was fun.
00:58You got a little dust up with the home plate umpire.
01:00Yeah.
01:01You know, you went in there with a finger point.
01:03I didn't know.
01:05Just fired up.
01:06Yeah, where did you make that?
01:08I mean, the home umpire, Mike, was it?
01:10Asterbrook, did he – once he took the mask off and he started going towards the mound,
01:13did you say, oh, all right, now I got to get up and have my boys back?
01:17Or how did that play out?
01:18So Lindor takes off.
01:20He's still second.
01:21Ramon is looking at – he calls Mike Brantley, our replay official, calls him,
01:25and I'm looking back, you know, towards Ramon to see if he gives him the go-ahead
01:30and challenge or the go-ahead and move on to the next play.
01:34So when I turn to move on to the next play, I see Wok arguing with him,
01:39and all of a sudden, boom, he threw him out.
01:41I'm like, no.
01:41I mean, like, he just came out of the I.L. the night before, we used our bullpen.
01:48We were very short yesterday, and my point was, especially with a veteran umpire,
01:52that's a veteran group, you know, just give me a chance to go there and you throw me out.
01:57You know, like, I'm not going to throw a pitch.
01:59I'm not going to hit a home run.
02:01You know, my only impact is managing the game, and you saw what happened the last two days, right?
02:08Don't throw him out.
02:09And he did, and that's what my argument was, and then he threw me out,
02:15and then I let him know that, you know, he wasn't that good in the first inning anyways.
02:21Some words were exchanged that we can't share here, I imagine.
02:24Alex, is that a fine line?
02:26Because I know Walker Bueller seemed a little, I don't know if disappointed in himself is the right word,
02:30but he realized he put his bullpen and his team in a tough spot.
02:33And you seem the same way.
02:34I heard you talking about, you know, Dave Dombrowski telling you that, you know,
02:37you only impact the game if you're sitting on the bench.
02:39So, not in your office.
02:40Is that a fine line as both a player and a manager, that emotion versus the fire versus the smart head?
02:46Yeah, yeah, yeah.
02:47And if you talk to Wok, he'll let you know that, you know, he probably crossed the line,
02:53and we need him at least for five.
02:56But it is what it is.
02:57The bullpen was amazing yesterday.
02:58They threw the ball extremely well.
03:01We got two big swings, one from Carlos, one from Rafi, and we ended up winning the game.
03:06From my end, that's something that I always think about it.
03:10And Dave was the one in 2018, game one of the ALCS.
03:14He's like, hey, man, I'd pay you to be in the dugout, not in the office.
03:17I'm like, okay, sir.
03:18Yes, sir.
03:19Yeah, yes, sir.
03:20And we still talk about it when I talk today.
03:22So, I don't like getting thrown out.
03:24I think it's 18 times.
03:26Booney gets thrown out 18 times a year.
03:29Savage is in the box.
03:30Yeah, I'll give him stuff about it, you know.
03:32But we have different personalities.
03:35You saw me punching the bullpen phone, whatever.
03:40And somewhere David Ortiz was like, yes.
03:43Yeah, yeah.
03:43There's a lot of pictures of that.
03:45But at the end of the day, we won the game.
03:46That's the most important thing.
03:47So, this must have been kind of like also like a bit of an emotional moment for you as well.
03:53Because Walker, you're not there on Monday.
03:56Now you come back.
03:57It's Mets-Red Sox, which has some juice to it.
03:59Big win on Monday.
04:00Walker Bueller makes his return.
04:02He's a feisty guy in the first place.
04:04He and Lindor have beef from last postseason when he walks off the mound very demonstratively after striking him out.
04:10Big strikeout.
04:11Although I like the Verdugo one better.
04:12And then now, he gets rung up and Lindor, like that kind of a thing.
04:18And I know you and Lindor are friends.
04:19So, that must have...
04:19We have breakfast.
04:21We have breakfast this morning.
04:23And I saw the clip of him like, throw him out, throw him out, throw him out.
04:27And then they threw him out.
04:29Yeah.
04:29But then Trevor told me that after Walker got thrown out, Lindor was doing the same thing with me.
04:34Yeah.
04:34Throw Alex out, throw Alex out.
04:36He threw him out.
04:36So, Francisco didn't tell me that this morning.
04:39But it's all fun and games, man.
04:42It's a game that, you know, you're allowed to show emotions.
04:46And I have to protect my players, you know.
04:47And in that instant, it was hard to swallow because I knew where we were.
04:53But Bernie came in, did the job.
04:55Whitlock did the job.
04:56Wise, Slayton, Chappie.
04:58And the cool things, we won the game.
05:00But we'll see how we figure out today.
05:02We got the big boy pitching, right?
05:04We got Garrett on the mound, so hopefully he can go deep into the game.
05:07And we don't have to use as many relievers as the last two days.
05:10And you talk about the last two days.
05:12I mean, you know, two starters and then ten relievers in the last two games.
05:16The bullpen, you know, recent.
05:18And Sunday, too.
05:20And Sunday, too.
05:21Just, I mean, but they really showed out the last couple games.
05:24You know, do you see maybe turning the corner for the bullpen?
05:28What do you see now these guys last night?
05:29Yeah, I think it's the season.
05:33This is how it works, right?
05:34It just happened that we went to Toronto, we blew two saves, and then we played Minnesota.
05:39We blew two saves.
05:41So it was four out of five games, you know?
05:44If you split them up, it doesn't look horrible, right?
05:47One this week, one next week, three weeks from now, and then a month from now.
05:52But everything happened so fast.
05:54It was Whitlock.
05:55It was Slayton.
05:56Big boys in the bullpen.
05:58And we were kind of like trying to find solutions, right?
06:01But if you look the last few weeks, Slayton has been amazing.
06:05Amazing.
06:06Chapman has been solid.
06:07Weiser has come up huge for us.
06:10Whitlock's still a work in progress.
06:11Like I said, coming out of surgery, we have to be smart with him.
06:15Justin Wilson, key for us.
06:17That lefty.
06:18Yeah.
06:18Lefty's on, righty's out.
06:20He's a veteran guy that we have to take care of, but he's been solid.
06:23Bernie had that bad one against Atlanta.
06:25He came in, he walked the world.
06:27That never happens, and he's been solid.
06:29So we have a good group.
06:31The most important thing here, and as you guys know, for the bullpen to be good, solid,
06:37and fresh over an extended period of time, we need the starters to go deeper into the game.
06:43I think that's the next step.
06:45We cannot live with four and two thirds every night.
06:47It's not October.
06:49In October, it doesn't matter.
06:50You do your thing, and you use everybody.
06:53But in the regular season, especially in stretches like this that we play 13 games in a row,
06:58it's not sustainable.
07:00It's very hard.
07:01So hopefully today, the big boy goes six, seven, and we can reset the bullpen.
07:06Alex, as a guy who's broadcasting from the home studio today to attend a senior award tonight
07:10for his son, I get the family pull sometimes for these jobs that are commitments to us.
07:16Just wanted to ask you, the decision Monday to go to your daughter's graduation, was that an easy one?
07:22And what was your response to some of the backlash, I guess, you got from it?
07:27It was very easy.
07:28People talk about my sacrifices as a manager, yeah?
07:33Missing a soccer game, missing whatever, you know, whatever she had going back home in Puerto Rico.
07:40How about the sacrifices she has made over 22 years because your dad is a public figure,
07:49and he's a baseball player, and he's a baseball coach, right?
07:52There's a lot of sacrifices, you know, and for me, it was kind of like pay it forward, you know,
07:57and, you know, hopefully we have to do it again for grad school, and then, I don't know,
08:02the twins are seven, so whenever they graduate from high school, I will go to that one.
08:06I don't know if I'm going to be managing.
08:08If I'm managing, I'm going to that one, and then I'll do the same thing.
08:11We all have families.
08:13We all have principals.
08:14This is my job.
08:17This is not my life.
08:18My life is my family, and she wanted us to be together, so we did that, and we had a blast, you know?
08:25I cannot change the mindset of people, you know?
08:29I'm just me, you know, and, you know, for those who didn't like it, well, you know,
08:35I'm not going to try to change their mind.
08:37I'm just going to keep living my life.
08:38You know, we're big family guys here on this show as well.
08:41We're talking to Alex Cora, Red Sox manager here on WEI Afternoons from the Ford Fenway Clubhouse Studios.
08:46We're big family guys.
08:47We try to make it to every game.
08:48We coach football.
08:48We coach baseball.
08:49Some of us won three Super Bowls, et cetera, if you didn't notice the Ted in the room.
08:54But, you know, like, to me as well, you're not defined by your job or your work.
08:59That's part of your legacy, but you're defined by your actions and, of course, how you treat others,
09:03and that shows us that you're a big family man as well, and we love that,
09:06and I think that resonated in Red Sox Nation.
09:08But just for fun, hypothetically speaking, if, I don't know, some person who made a bigger deal about it,
09:15you know, in town, were here, what would you like to say to him?
09:19No, I'm good.
09:20I'm good.
09:20Okay.
09:20Okay.
09:21All right.
09:21But now, okay, good.
09:23I just wanted to put that out.
09:24But now back to the game.
09:26Last night, to me, I think the Walker-Buehler incident last night, Alex,
09:30could be a bit of a touchstone moment.
09:32I think, in a lot of ways, the fact that your team was emotionally rallied and came around you
09:37and came around Walker-Buehler and held that lead last night, I got Joe Kelly Fight Club vibes off of that.
09:42And that was a big moment back in 2018 for you guys.
09:45That was the moment.
09:46I mean, I know we got the brand somewhere here.
09:49Oh, yeah.
09:49There he is.
09:50He's there.
09:51He's hanging over.
09:51That was a big moment because it was my first Yankee-Red Sox game as a manager.
10:00Oh, wow.
10:01You know, it was electric over the weekend, and we did that.
10:07You know, Joe, I think they slid hard into Brock Hall at second.
10:10There was a lefty that now he's pitching for the Braves that grabbed the bullpen phone
10:19and called to the bullpen and gave some instructions, and they executed.
10:25They executed, and that was fun in a sense, right, because I felt like after that we kind of, like, took off.
10:32You know, it was our first big moment as a group.
10:35I know Joe had a blast that whole week when he got suspended doing a lot of things.
10:39But as a team, I'm not saying we have to go out there and fight.
10:44We can go back to 08.
10:45Remember, Tampa Bay.
10:46Tampa Bay, we got into it, and we took off from that moment on.
10:50I think we took off in that series.
10:51And hopefully, you know, with Walker, Yessre, and the whole phone, the bullpen phone, and all that stuff,
10:58we can take off.
11:00It'll be fun to do that.
11:0104 in Tech with Tech and A-Rod.
11:03Yeah, that one.
11:04There were those little moments.
11:05Yeah, there's always moments like that.
11:07Sparks 2001.
11:072001, we always go back to the Jerome Pathan hit with Brian Cox as well.
11:11Like, boom, that's when it happens.
11:12Just to take a little bit of a right turn here, Alex, I have an obsession with first base.
11:17And obviously, that position hasn't been quite settled yet.
11:20But there's a thinking out there that the way Rafi's hitting maybe precludes him from playing first base,
11:27that you don't want to mess with him and his hitting.
11:29Is there something to that?
11:31And just your thoughts so far on where the first base situation is?
11:34Yeah, I think right now, like I always said, I think I've been saying this every Wednesday.
11:39Today is Sogar playing first base.
11:42We got Toro.
11:43That's the duo that is taking opener first.
11:47And we're going to give him every chance to keep playing and doing their job.
11:52Christian Campbell is taking ground balls.
11:54You know, he looks okay, but it's only four days, you know.
11:58And the thing about all this is, like, we will never know until they step onto the field.
12:05And as you know, there's going to be situations that will come up in the game that you can never practice, right?
12:11And we're going to make mistakes.
12:13And we've got to be smart about it.
12:15The health part of it, too, is something important.
12:17And Rui Rafi, he's doing an outstanding job right now.
12:21He's the best hitting DH in the – well, the best DH, of course, in the American League.
12:26Your OPS, home base percentage, RBIs, homers.
12:30I mean, he's having a great season.
12:32And we'll keep talking.
12:33We'll keep talking.
12:35So as Christian Campbell takes some drills and ground balls before he gets into game action,
12:39we look down in Worcester and Marcelo Meyer is playing some second base down there.
12:43Can we tie those two things together and say if Christian Campbell goes to first base,
12:47there's a good chance Marcelo Meyer could come up and play second?
12:50I think as an organization, we're preparing for everything, right?
12:54Like I said a few days ago, the whole KC at first base is just to introduce him to the position,
13:00see how he looks, see how he moves.
13:03And if he's comfortable, maybe in time, two weeks, a month, two months, whatever,
13:08we can play him there.
13:09Versatility helps, right?
13:11And it's the same thing with Marcelo in the minor leagues.
13:14He can play second.
13:15He can play short.
13:16He can play third.
13:18He wants to get to the big leagues.
13:19You know, if you tell Marcelo, hey, if you catch for a week and, you know,
13:23if you catch for a week and then we call you to the big leagues to do that,
13:27will you do it?
13:28Of course.
13:28He'll say, yeah, I'll do that and more.
13:30So we're trying to be as flexible as possible, versatile as possible.
13:35And I think in the long run, he's going to help us.
13:37I know you got to go.
13:38You got a big game that's starting in just over four hours.
13:40But in regards to tonight's, obviously, looking for a big one from Crochet.
13:43Anyone coming up or coming down to help out the pen?
13:45No, no, no.
13:46We're staying put.
13:48Obviously, a little short, but there's guys that are available.
13:52You know, Liam hasn't pitched.
13:54Whit can give us an inning.
13:56Bernie can go out there and give us an inning.
13:58So, you know, hopefully the big boy goes six or seven.
14:02And then after that, we can cover three and win the game.
14:04Or maybe he gets his first complete game in the majors.
14:06In the U.S. uniform.
14:07Wouldn't that be nice?
14:07Guys, we always appreciate the candor, the humor, and the insight very much, Alex.
14:11Good luck tonight.
14:11And we'll talk to you next Wednesday.
14:12Thank you, guys.