Mastrodonato: As Red Sox’ COVID outbreak continues, Alex Cora stays upbeat

Let’s start with the obvious: the Red Sox are not fine.

And the COVID-19 outbreak has clearly not been handled well.

It’s impossible to say who is to blame, if anyone is to blame at all — the virus has proven to win battles against even the fiercest of foes — but there’s no question the Red Sox are not in good shape.

They added Chris Sale and Jonathan Arauz to the COVID-19 related injury list Friday. Sale tested positive for the second time in 9 months. That’s now 13 players to go on the COVID list in the last 14 days.

“I feel very comfortable with the way we’re doing things,” a confusingly upbeat Alex Cora said Friday afternoon before starting a three-game series with the White Sox. “We’ve been in constant communication with MLB and obviously our situation is different than 27 other teams (because the Red Sox haven’t reached the 85% vaccination threshold). But I can tell you from personal experience, I feel very safe with the way we do things here.”

Someone will have to find out what kind of self-help books are on Cora’s shelf, because it’s stunning to see a manager with such a positive outlook on an organization that has failed him in several ways over the last six weeks.

Cora managed circles around the opposition for four months. He entered the week of the trade deadline in first place only for his organization to whiff on adding any impact pitchers or healthy hitters amidst the most difficult two-week stretch of the season.

Cora maintained a positive attitude and somehow kept his team afloat, despite every other American League contender upgrading significantly. But too many of his players chose not to get vaccinated, inarguably creating a higher risk for transmission of COVID-19, which has now knocked out some of his best players in Sale, Xander Bogaerts, Kiké Hernandez and Matt Barnes, among others.

And yet somehow, even with his ace going on the shelf amidst a crucial six-game stretch against the White Sox and Mariners, Cora entered Friday feeling like his organization had done things the right way.

“Since Day 1 in spring training all the way to today when they went to my house to take care of my family,” he said. “It’s something (the training staff) and everybody involved in this process, we take pride in the competitive side but also the personal side. We do an outstanding job.

“People don’t know last week there were a lot of guys staying at the hotel because we wanted to take care of our families. The organization is very proactive. We love that we feel safe, although it doesn’t look that way with everything going on. But from my end I feel very comfortable with the way we do things.”

Southerners have a saying to express sympathy, especially for folks who are upbeat in the most grim situations: Bless your heart.

It seems Cora could use a blessing right now.

His club entered Friday with Tanner Houck on the mound and two blank slates for Saturday and Sunday. Nick Pivetta, who tested positive for COVID-19 last week, might be back in time to start Sunday’s game, but it’s too soon to tell.

Chances are, a couple of minor leaguers will get the starts.

“How are we going to replace Sale? I don’t know,” Cora said. “We show up today, play baseball today. We’ve got Tanner. We’ll keep talking about it day by day. We’ll make decisions accordingly. We’ll see how we finish today the game, see where we’re at, bullpen-wise. We’ll make a decision for (Saturday), and then we’ll keep doing that.

“It’s not easy. It’s actually very hard. But this is our reality and we’ve got to keep going.”

Asked how grim the situation appears to be, Cora responded, “Well, we’ve got the first wild card spot, so that’s pretty cool.”

Entering Friday, there were five teams within three games of each other fighting for the chance to play in a single-elimination American League Wild Card Game.

The Red Sox have six games left against two of those teams, the Mariners and Yankees.

Fortunately, they have four off-days in a matter of 12 days starting on Thursday. It’s the saving grace for a team that has just three healthy starting pitchers: Nathan Eovaldi, Eduardo Rodriguez and Houck.

“I think the off-days will benefit us in this situation, no doubt about it,” Cora said.

When this season finally and mercifully comes to a close, the Sox will have to do an internal examination to figure out what they could’ve done better to prevent a two-week long COVID outbreak from decimating their clubhouse in the final month of the season.

For now, Cora is staying positive.