Is Red Sox’ Alex Cora already checking standings in midst of recent surge? (2024)

CINCINNATI — The Red Sox (40-35) have won five straight games and eight of their past 10 games.

They enter Friday’s game against the Reds just one game behind the Twins for the third and final AL Wild Card spot.

There’s obviously still a long way to go. Eighty-seven games remain on the schedule. But has manager Alex Cora already started checking the daily standings? Of course.

“Day one, man,” Cora said laughing about when he started. “At Fenway, it’s right there.”

Cora is referring to the AL East standings on the Green Monster scoreboard. Boston is 10 games behind the first-place Yankees and 9 ½ games behind the second-place Orioles in the AL East.

The Wild Card standings are much more relevant. Boston is 9 ½ games behind Baltimore for the top Wild Card spot but only 1 ½ games behind the Royals for the second spot and only one game behind the Twins for the third spot.

The Rays, the fifth place team in the Wild Card standings next behind Boston, are five games behind the Twins.

“We know where we’re at,” Cora said. “We talk about it yesterday and I think that the thing we have to do is continue to play. Just continue to play. The schedule is the schedule. We went through a tough one right there. We played well (4-2 against the Yankees and Phillies). These guys (the Reds), they haven’t played at their best yet, but they have a good team. They hit the ball hard. They can pitch. And they’re athletic. So just stay the course. That’s the way we see it. We’re doing a better job winning series. So we come here, it’s going to be challenging with the weather (mid-90s) but we prepare, win the series and move on.”

The Red Sox’ recent surge has a lot to do with their offense. Boston is first in the majors in both batting average (.294) and on-base percentage (.369) during June. It ranks second in steals (29), fifth in slugging percentage (.473) and third in OPS (.842).

“(Ceddanne) Rafaela, Jarren (Duran), everybody’s contributing,” Cora said.

Rafaela is batting .377 with a .406 on-base percentage, .475 slugging percentage and .882 OPS in 64 plate appearances in June. Duran is batting .356 with a .429 on-base percentage, .603 slugging percentage and 1.031 OPS in 84 plate appearances this month.

“We’re hitting the ball hard. ... I think we’ve controlled the strike zone a lot better,” Cora said.

Cora said controlling the strike zone better started against Phillies ace Zack Wheeler.

“He beat us but we did a good job against him,” Cora said. “The (Aaron) Nola game was good. But (opposing) starters are not going too deep. That’s something we talk about as a group. There’s going to be games that we’re going to lose. But you can win the series just getting that starter out early. They go to the bullpen the first day and it’s going to open the window for one of those two games later on in the series to win it. It happened in Chicago with (Michael) Kopech. He pitched on Saturday, made (33) pitches and then we were able to steal a game on Sunday.”

The Red Sox offense will receive another boost Saturday. Wilyer Abreu (ankle sprain) is expected to be activated from the IL.

“We thought when (Abreu) got hurt, the offense was going to suffer and kind of like we took off,” Cora said. “We’ve got a bunch of good hitters that are doing a lot of good things at the plate. We’re putting the ball in play I think a little bit more. We’re walking more, which is important. Hopefully that trend continues.”