NEW YORK — Red Sox manager Alex Cora played the underdog card Saturday, one day after Boston clinched its first postseason berth since 2021. He declared, “Whoever says that we were a playoff team, that’s (expletive) bull-(expletive). Nobody thought we were gonna make it to October.”
Yankees manager Aaron Boone, however, said he knew the Red Sox were capable of making the postseason.
“I think a lot of people saw it coming, too,” Boone said Monday at Yankee Stadium. “Contrary to what (Cora said). I think he’s played the little engine that could over there a little bit. I think a lot of people knew the Red Sox were coming this year.”
The Red Sox and Yankees will begin a best-of-three AL Wild Card Series on Tuesday.
On Sunday, Cora acknowledged he “got emotional” when he made the comment. He revised his statement, saying that he thinks people began to doubt the Red Sox after the Rafael Devers trade June 15, not before the season when several experts had predicted Boston to make the postseason.
MLB.com had 59 voters predict each division winner and postseason winners before the season. The website chose the Red Sox to win both the AL East and AL Pennant.
The Red Sox also received the most votes among FanGraphs’ staff members to win the AL East, and AL Pennant while also receiving most votes for the No. 1 seed in the American League.
“Obviously, they’ve gone through a couple of tough years but he’s always been the clear leader of that group,” Boone said about Cora. “You started to see it come together a little bit last year I felt like.”
At the time of trading Devers to the Giants, Boston was 37-36. The Sox went 52-37 after the trade.
“After a little bit of an uneven start, they’ve really become obviously a very good team and one of the best teams in the league here the second half of the year,” Boone said.
Cora enters Tuesday with a 17-8 record in the postseason. Boone described Cora as “one of the game’s really good ones.”
“They play the game within the game really well,” Boone said. “I think he’s a really good leader. I think his team kind of embodies who he is. And I think he does a really good job of helping set and define the culture over there.”