Craig Kimbrel took what looked like a second consecutive easy victory for the Red Sox and turned it into a nail-biter on Tuesday night, and fans in Boston should just be thankful manager Alex Cora did not go with his original plan to finish off Game 4.
After the Red Sox held on to beat the Yankees 4-3 in New York, Boston pitching coach Dana LeVangie spoke about the thought process that led to Chris Sale coming on in the eigth inning. The other option was having Kimbrel try to record six outs.
“Craig getting six outs, the closer getting six outs, that’s tough,” LeVangie said, per Rob Bradford of WEEI.com. “I was all in for (Sale), because I know if there were any issues, the training staff would say no, you can’t do this, so they’re a part of this too. We all wanted to do it together, but (the decision) didn’t get made until two outs in the 7th.”
We have no way of knowing how that would have gone, but Kimbrel wouldn’t have lasted into the 9th if he came on in the 8th and looked as shaky as he was on Tuesday. Sale breezed through the 8th and bridged the gap perfectly, and there was no margin for error after Kimbrel had control issues and allowed two runs to come across in the final frame.
Perhaps it was a bad omen when an item was launched at Kimbrel as he was heading out from the bullpen, but he managed to get the job done. If he pitches like that in the ALCS, he may not be so fortunate.
