Masataka Yoshida’s absence is a rare consistency in recent Red Sox lineups

Alex Cora — no matter what he says — keeps finding reasons to choose someone else besides Yoshida amid a litany of choices.

It was quite the succinct little wrapper from Alex Cora on Wednesday afternoon, after his Red Sox dropped their finale in Cleveland.

“It sucks,” the manager told reporters. “We lost the series, but we played well.”

Hard to deny, and the simplicity of the description was a contrast to the game, even by the standards of this perpetual fire drill.

Even Masataka Yoshida played. No small thing of late.

Rafael Devers, feeling a little sore following his Wednesday return from injury, was the DH. David Hamilton got his first start at second base, Rob Refsnyder his first in left. Pablo Reyes hit fifth, one of 10 to hit in that spot this season.

Cora is on quite the run with the lineup cards. Across 26 of them for his 14-12 team, he’s used 25 batting orders and 24 defensive lineups. And Wednesday’s got another shuffle mid-game.

After Chase Anderson gave up five runs to start a six-arm bullpen day, Cora chased it. Down, 5-2, in the fifth, he used back-to-back lefty pinch hitters (Yoshida, Enmanuel Valdez) to try and close the gap, then respun his full infield for the bottom half, with Connor Wong at first and Ceddanne Rafaela at third — second appearances there for both.

The Sox didn’t quite get there, but Cora wasn’t wrong. There wasn’t much to complain about outside of two Reese McGuire throwing errors in the seventh, and those came after he’d thrown out a basestealer.

The defense turned three double plays. Both Jarren Duran and Wilyer Abreu threw runners out. Some solid situational hitting in the sixth by Rafaela and Duran, when the Sox had two on and none out, got things within a run. It didn’t end well, but it was a 10-hit game a day after a 16-hit one, a salve after Brayan Bello made it 14 on the injured list.

Against Cleveland, off to an American League best 18-7 start? I dare say we’re getting it as good as we’re going to. This sort of tumble dry is pretty regular when you build something entirely out of the spare Legos they throw in the bottom of the box.

The infield? Good luck. Triston Casas doesn’t even have a timetable following his broken rib, Trevor Story is out for the year, Devers (who went 6 for 9 in his return) has already missed consecutive games three times, and Vaughn Grissom — when he gets here — is 23 years old, without even 250 plate appearances in the majors.

The outfield, at least, appears to be solidifying into something. Five times on the 4-2 road trip, Cora started the same trio: Duran, Abreu, and Refsnyder.

At least two-thirds of that doesn’t require much analysis. Rafaela being the best of a bad shortstop array frees up space for Duran, whose bat has gone cold but continues to have value in the field and on the bases, and Abreu, who’s consistently hitting the ball hard after a 2 for 18 start. He’s at .306/.389/.516, a disciplined enough hitter to be swinging more and still increasing his walk rate.

Through Patriots’ Day, the calculus beyond was simple: Tyler O’Neill in a corner spot, and Yoshida at DH. Then, O’Neill bashed heads with Devers, and Refsnyder came off the injured list from a broken toe.

Yoshida, the team’s third highest-paid player, with this and three subsequent years at $18.6 million, has been the one to sit. He started two of the Pittsburgh games at DH, but in the last eight, has ceded the spot to coming-off-injury Devers and O’Neill, Wong, and . . . Tyler Heineman.

Cora, reading the quotes, was oddly testy when asked about Yoshida being anything but the “everyday DH.” And yet, he then started him on the bench again Thursday, deciding Devers needed another day out of the field.

Yoshida, one of the sport’s better contact guys, could work at leadoff and spell Duran, who was 3 for 27 on the road trip and didn’t hit much hard. Yoshida’s removal from the field, however, looks established. He played hardly any left field this spring and has one inning there in 26 games.

Cora made clear he’s healthy. The player that Chaim Bloom’s administration chased for years, a hitting savant who they thought had raw power and who could be coached up some in the outfield, should now be better adjusted to the major league game and blossoming in his second year.

In a small sample, he’s further honed his patience, seeing fewer pitches in the zone and attacking more of the ones he does see. The numbers, however, have not come: A .233/.317/.342 line that’s reasonably representative given the lack of quality contact he’s made.

“All I can do is just stay ready and stay prepared for when the time comes,” Yoshida told reporters via interpreter in Cleveland.

Odds are, his time will. Refsnyder, who has a career .693 OPS, will cool from his 9 for 21 start. Abreu will as well, though getting him playing time will remain a priority. O’Neill’s injury history is well documented, though depending on how his season develops, lessening wear by plugging him at DH seems a potential solution.

Especially if a lineup without Casas, and to a lesser degree Story, isn’t as productive as most of us assumed it would be.

So much of what happens early in a six-month baseball season fades quickly, be it Cleveland being the AL’s best team or the Red Sox running away with the ERA crown. We have seen the lengths that Cora will go to get his team on the field, be it “David Hamilton, shortstop” or “Bobby Dalbec, first baseman.”

Yoshida’s extended absence will likely fade quickly too. He’s probably not the guy who was hitting .320 with some power into late July last year, but he’s likely more than this, too.

But he only is if he plays. And amid the constant churn of a particularly snakebit April, Yoshida’s manager — no matter what he says — keeps finding reasons to choose someone else amid a litany of choices.

I don’t necessarily disagree.

I merely wonder how long this particular choice, in a year full of flipping and fitting, will keep coming up the same way.