Alex Cora’s Value to Red Sox in Comeback Against Yankees

The Red Sox are happy to have extended Alex Cora’s contract, huh?

Boston didn’t make it easy on itself on Friday, but got back in the win column with a come-from-behind victory over the New York Yankees at Fenway Park. It was a thriller from start to finish, with a total of three ties and two lead changes in the seventh inning.

Aaron Judge hit a 470-foot home run in what appeared to be his first signature moment at Fenway. Ceddanne Rafaela responded to spark a rally for the Red Sox. Wilyer Abreu came off the bench to provide a lift. Masataka Yoshida produced the game-winning hit, moving him ever closer to “Yankee Killer” status.

Cora, however, was the star player on Friday, showing the value that now makes him one of the highest-paid managers in baseball.

Cora, just like throughout his coaching career, pushed the right buttons.

Boston’s maestro began pulling the strings in the sixth inning, quickly replacing Cam Booser with Josh Winckowski after a pair of hits by the former put the Yankees in jeopardy. Result: Winckowski escaped unscathed.

Cora wasn’t done making the right moves, but that had a lot to do with the fact that his two most reliable middle-relief arms were having blowup innings, with Brennan Bernardino and Zack Kelly giving up four runs combined in the seventh — including that Stantonian blast from Judge we mentioned earlier. The Red Sox were able to bounce back in the eighth, though, when Cora made the decision to replace Tyler O’Neill — the man with a .364/.375/1.000 hit with four homers, eight RBIs and a pair of doubles in his last five games — with Wilyer Abreu. Result: Abreu tied the game with a double, before Yoshida hit the game-winning single.

But you can’t fully appreciate how valuable those moves are without looking at the infield. How did Yankees manager Aaron Boone do it?

He replaced Ben Rice with DJ LeMahieu as defensive replacement in the seventh inning, but the latter struck out in the ninth as the tying batter. He also mentioned closer Clay Holmes in the eighth inning, but saw the man with a 16.20 ERA against the Red Sox this season immediately blow the game.

Cora’s value? He has consistently made the right moves, and he is not Beans.

“It was loud. It was fun. Their fans were here, our fans were here,” Cora said after the game, as seen on NESN. “… It felt like it was back and forth in the last three innings like it used to be here. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s why we’re here. That’s one of the reasons we decided to stay here, because we love it, and sometimes I get chills when I look around. There’s a difference between what’s happening here now and what’s happening earlier in the season. Early in the season, with all due respect, it felt like a museum; the Fenway experience. But now (the fans) are all in, they like the team and they understand what we’re trying to do.”

Is AC having fun? So is Boston.