Alex Cora has a master plan for the last weeks of the season



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On Wednesday, it seemed to move back slightly in favor of a midline. Yes, his players would need rest, he said, but if the Red Sox had a chance to disrupt the Yankees' playoff project, they could do it too.

This could mean forcing the Yankees to use their best thrower (be it Masahiro Tanaka, JA Happ or anyone else) during the last weekend of the regular season, rather than in the wild game or the first one. match of the series.

"We'll talk about it," said Cora.

Whatever its decision, the end of the 2017 season offers a roadmap. The Red Sox led the Yankees to A.L. East in three games before the final weekend of the season. On the last Friday, the Astros defeated Boston in their 160th game and the Yankees defeated Toronto, meaning the Yankees could still catch up with Boston in the last two games. (In addition to forcing Boston to play his best players, the Astros also fought with the Cleveland Indians to get the best result from the AL, which made them win.)

In his 161st match, while Boston was still fighting for the A. From the East, Houston used virtually the same lineup as in Game 7 of the World Series. But Boston won that game, 6-3, to finally win the division title.

If the Red Sox had lost, they could have turned to their ace, Chris Sale, in the last game of the season. This would have prevented Sale from throwing twice against the Astros in the division round, which was Houston's primary goal.

"Last year, I knew that the Red Sox were still trying to get the division, so we had some goals in mind," said Cora. "One of them was to push them to use Chris on the last day of the season, which we did not accomplish. But we pushed them almost to the limit. It was good because they had to play and there was a lot of information from this series.

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