Sitting Brock Holt after the cycle was not difficult for Alex Cora

NEW YORK – It was not good, but the Red Sox scorer played twice against the happiest team on the circuit to mark the start of the regular season in the majors. The Sox pen made the difference in games 1 and 4 of the division series of the American League, but never broke the game, a big win for Gary Sanchez who put the match 2 out of reach.

The expected weakness of the Sox, which are four victories of the world series, seemed indeed vulnerable. But the relief corps was also pretty good at getting the Red Sox to a team of 100 wins in the Yankees.

"We managed to sneak in," Sox baseball president Dave Dombrowski said Tuesday evening. "I think our office did a good job in the playoffs. Craig [Kimbrel] struggled today. It does not happen often, but when you get to your loved one, it's who you're trying to get to and you're looking at it today and most shows have done a pretty good job. "

The Red Sox defensemen in the DS awarded seven points in 17 innings (a points average of 3.71), 17 free kicks and 11 goals. There were 11 hits, including two homers, and opponents hit .183 against them.

"We thought we would sometimes use starters, you can do it with a little bit of time," Dombrowski said. "We also had to make a few more tweaks, because we thought we would have Steven Wright, but it was a loss for us, but our guys were able to juggle that and Alex [Cora] did a good job in wielding the 'pen to get us ready to use the guys and [Heath] Hembree intervened and played well for us.

The Yankees, who had many big names in their field, had a 4.91 ERA in relief in the series – but most of it was concentrated in a disastrous match of the third day. in Game 3 (and this includes the performance of Austin Romine.)

Craig Kimbrel was on the verge of collapsing Tuesday night in the ninth inning, while two points were scored to cut the lead by 4-1, marking the start of the period at 4-3. Giancarlo Stanton did not allow his team to enter the series, but the Red Sox prevented Kimbrel from getting out of trouble. The match ended on a superb play from Eduardo Nunez on third base, plus a Steve Pearce sequence at first base.

"Nervous," said Rick Porcello in the ninth. "I was on the guardrail and had to step back to sit on the bench because I could not watch. Because you know I'm so nervous. But Craig did a hell of a job. … it was awesome. "

Porcello said that he had never been so nervous in a match before.

"I will not try to do that," Kimbrel said. "I'm trying to have a 1-2-3 inning, but it does not always work that way. At the end of the day, we won and we are looking forward to Houston. "

Kimbrel was one of Sox's two regular records – not a convert – to allow the team to earn a deserved point in the series, with three in 2 1/3 inning. Brandon Workman allowed one.

An encouraging sign, the other regular season-end replacements of the regular season, such as Matt Barnes, Ryan Brasier, Heath Hembree and Joe Kelly, combined their efforts for 9 2/3 with no earned runs and only two shots allowed. They walked six and broken eight.

The only game that the Sox allowed the legacy runners to score was in the first game, when three out of seven went home. Four legacy runners were stuck in the second game, the only other game that Sox lifters inherited from the runners.

The Yanks, meanwhile, allowed seven legacy runners to score, including five in the slopfest of the third match.