Alex Cora on Red Sox Critics amid Pitching Woes: 'Check What Happened Last Year'

The Boston Red Sox have started the season 1-3, and the pitching staff has given up a whopping 34 runs. But manager Alex Cora isn't worried.

"Whoever is doubting us, check what happened last year," Cora told reporters Sunday. "We did the same thing."

He added: "It's easy to second-guess now what we did. Nobody second-guessed us last year. It's a program; you have to be disciplined. That's the way I see it. We played until Oct. 28. The previous year, when I got here, everybody was talking about how they were out of bullets in October against the Houston Astros."

Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted that during spring training, the Red Sox limited innings pitched by their five starters—Chris Sale, Rick Porcello, David Price, Nate Eovaldi and Eduardo Rodriguez—to try to keep them fresh after last season's deep postseason run and World Series title.

But Boston's starting pitching has struggled immensely thus far. Sale gave up seven earned runs in the season opener. The Red Sox won the second game of the season, but not before the Mariners scored six runs against Eovaldi in five innings. Rodriguez only lasted 4.1 innings in the third game of the season, giving up six runs (five earned). And Porcello was flat-out bad in his first start, allowing six hits, four walks and nine runs (four earned) in just 2.2 innings.

Cora's remarks that the team did the same thing a season ago aren't accurate, as Abraham pointed out: "Sale had two fewer starts in spring training this season, and Porcello and Price had one less. Eovaldi had three fewer starts than he did with Tampa Bay in 2018."

Obviously, this remains a strong staff, and it deserves some benefit of the doubt given the way it performed last season. But the Red Sox also play in arguably the toughest division in baseball and can't afford to have their pitchers struggle for long.

The team's offense is going to have to do some heavy lifting until the rotation rounds into form.