LONDON — In his book “Francona: The Red Sox Years,” written with Dan Shaughnessy, former Red Sox skipper and current Indians manager Terry Francona recalled his dread in taking the team to Japan to open the season with a two-game series against the Athletics. Francona could barely generate any enthusiasm about the trip’s greater goal of promoting Major League Baseball. He just wanted to manage baseball games.
For Alex Cora, a player on those 2008 Red Sox, appreciating the bigger picture comes far more easily.
“I’m a big fan of international baseball,” Cora, now the Red Sox’s manager, said Friday at London Stadium.
Which is all great, except this isn’t a season-opening series against an out-of-division club. When the Red Sox and Yankees play the first regular-season game in Europe on Saturday evening, Boston will be looking to cut the nine-game American League East deficit to its rival, with the Rays sitting between the two superpowers.
“It’s something that, we knew coming into the season it was going to happen,” Cora said of the London Series. “It just happens that we are where we are in the standings. We’ve been playing better. I think obviously we want to be more consistent with what we do on a daily basis. But to come here and play two good games and move on is very important.”
“These two games and every other game we play [against the Yankees] after this are extremely important for us to gain ground,” said Rick Porcello, who will start for the Red Sox on Saturday.
The defending World Series champions have been down and up, then down and up a couple of more times this season. They enter with a 10-4 record in their past 14 games after falling to .500 (34-34) with a June 11 home loss to the Rangers.
“This is where we’re at,” Cora said, “and I told somebody the other day, there are different ways to make it to the promised land. Last year was that magic run and historic season. This year we took another avenue, but our expectations are the same: To win the World Series again.”
Like the Yankees, the Red Sox played a day game on Wednesday and immediately hopped over the Atlantic Ocean. Porcello said he spent Thursday exploring with his teammate Brandon Workman, checking out sites like Camden Market, the Shoreditch district and Piccadilly Circus.
Reigning American League Most Valuable Player Mookie Betts said he played golf on Thursday and checked out Borough Market. Cora said that he and his Yankees counterpart Aaron Boone watched the legendary Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace on Friday.
“We know these are games that we need,” Betts said. “[Thursday] was a day to kind of hang out. Today’s a day to prepare. After we can go to dinner with our families. We’ll wake up tomorrow ready to go.”
