The Red Sox faced Yankees ace Max Fried just a little more than two weeks ago at Fenway Park, and the strategy for manager Alex Cora at the time was clear: Get as many righties in the lineup as possible against the left-handed Fried.
That meant righties Rob Refsnyder in left field, Carlos Narvaez at DH, Romy Gonzalez at first base, Nate Eaton in right field and switch-hitter Nick Sogard at second base. There were eight righties in the lineup, plus Sogard, and the Red Sox managed nine hits and two walks in 5.1 innings against Fried, though they only scored twice.
For Game 1 at Yankee Stadium, Cora will not be so hard-core with his right-handed hitters. He did not reveal his entire lineup before the game, but he said that lefty Jarren Duran will, surprisingly, be in left field.
Jarren Duran Struggles vs. Lefties
Duran is 0-for-10 against Fried. He has had a hard time against lefties this year, hitting .211 with a .260 on-base percentage, and .340 slugging mark against southpaws.
But Cora said he values the familiarity that Duran has playing in Yankee Stadium’s vast left field.
“I haven’t talked to most of them about how we’re going to do it, but it’s probably going to be kind of like the similar lineup that we have. I just want to make sure J.D. knew. I think defense here in left field matters a lot, and he’s done it before,” Cora said.
“They’re good against lefties and righties, Fried and Rodon. So go out there, battle, and hopefully we get the line moving, and we get them out of the game early.”
Red Sox Playing Well on the Road
Cora also was asked about going on the road to open the playoffs. The Red Sox have had a good run in away games recently, with seven wins in the last 10 games on the road and 14 of their last 20.
There’s no sure explanation for the Red Sox’s success there, Cora said, except that the team was in a playoff chase and knew it needed to win.
“I don’t know. I think we were up and down early in the season, and then at the end we needed to win games. The guys played well,” he said.
“… Overall I think we have played good baseball. When we didn’t play good baseball, we stayed playing .500 ball, which is what you want to do. There’s nothing that–you know, we played in Sacramento. We played in Tampa. I don’t know. There’s nothing that gets my attention that we were better because of. We played better defense. We just played good baseball.”
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