Alex Cora

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Great stat from Bill Chuck of Billy-Ball.com: Since 2004, the Red Sox have had 24 different shortstops. In that same time period, the Yankees have used 15 different shortstops with Derek Jeter playing 1,188 games. Here's a breakdown of the Red Sox starters: 2004 Pokey Reese 56 Orlando Cabrera 58 Nomar Garciaparra 37 Cesar Crespo 7 Ricky Gutierrez 3 Mark Bellhorn 1 2005 Edgar Renteria 150 Ramon Vazquez 6 Alex Cora 5 Mark Bellhorn 1 2006 Alex Gonzalez 110 Alex Cora 47 ...

Coming soon to a theater near you: "The Nick Green Story. " Surely Matt Damon can slide this one into his schedule. Forget "Fever Pitch. " That was fictional. This guaranteed blockbuster would be a full-blown biopic, the rags-to-riches story of a career spare part who lands in Boston and becomes a folk hero. It's got everything, including the unhappy year languishing as a discarded Yankee. A chance to bash the Yankees about the One Who Got Away? Irresistible. Stealin' money.

When Kevin Youkilis walked away from the plate, his hands held skyward, one still clutching his bat, his face was a mask of ire. He had just struck out swinging for the second out of the eighth inning, leaving a man on first base with his team down by one run. He was not alone in his anger. Not that they were all strikeouts. There were fly outs and ground outs and double-play balls, a bunt that resulted in an out at third, a man thrown out at the plate. There was also only one run scored by the Red Sox on an afternoon Josh Beckett contained the Blue Jays, all culminating in a 2-1 loss that gave Toronto a split of...

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff The Red Sox lineup could look something like this on Opening Day: Ellsbury CF Pedroia 2B Gonzalez 1B Ortiz DH Youkilis 3B Saltalamacchia C Sweeney RF Aviles SS McDonald or Ross LF Five All-Stars, then you fall off a cliff. (Although in fairness to Salty, he's a better hitter than most catchers out there). Don't be alarmed. The lineup will get deeper once Carl Crawford gets back. The Sox also will get much more out of a Ryan Sweeney/Cody Ross platoon in right field then they did out of the position last year.

The Red Sox confirmed yesterday what everyone knew to be true. Even after getting shelled in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, Tim Wakefield remains a bargain too good to pass up. At roughly 2:20 p.m., the Sox announced that they have exercised Wakefield's contract option for the 2009 season. By doing so, they guaranteed the 42-year-old knuckleballer a base salary of $4 million next year and triggered another option for 2010. Since 2005, Wakefield's contract has contained a unique provision, a "regenerating" option at the end of every year.

Zakim Bridge. Storrow Drive. Jamaicaway. Exit 14 on Route 3 South. Newington, N.H. Route 495, North and South. These are, I'm sure, some of the places where yesterday afternoon Red Sox ticket-holders were listening to Joe and Dave on their car radios when they should have been cheering themselves hoarse along with the savvy ones who stayed to watch the Red Sox Comeback Of The Year. Don't these people know that baseball is the no-clock game? And haven't they already seen enough of the 2007 Red Sox to know that you don't bail on these guys, even if they're trailing, 5-0, with one out...

PHILADELPHIA -- As David Ortiz tells it, two of the little guys in the Red Sox dugout, Alex Cora and Alex Gonzalez, were pondering the magnitude of Ortiz's home run last night into the second deck of Citizens Bank Park, a ball that at one time appeared headed to the same spot -- a McDonald's sign on the facade of the third deck -- that Barry Bonds had reached with his 713th home run nearly two weeks ago. "Alex Cora told Alex Gonzalez, 'David's...

They endured poor middle relief, coughed up a five-run lead, but in the end, Curt Schilling's two shutout innings and Edgar Renteria's redeeming moment produced a victory. Renteria's single down the left-field line scored Bill Mueller and gave the Red Sox an 8-7 win over the Texas Rangers last night at Fenway Park. The marathon win lasted 4 hours and 13 minutes, and coupled with a 2-1 Yankee loss to Chicago, it allowed Boston to open a 4 1/2-game lead in the AL East over New York.

A month and change of the baseball season is in the books. 1. PITCHING, PITCHING, PITCHING 'Tis said you can never be too rich or too thin. I can't verify either, but here's something you can take to the financial institution of your choice: You can never have too much pitching! I must respectfully disagree with Julian Tavarez, who is on record as saying the Red Sox don't need Roger Clemens. Were I the fifth starter on this team, I, too, might lobby for a career 348-game winner with seven Cys to stay home and play catch with the neighborhood youngins.

NEW YORK -- Is it time to stir up a second base controversy? No, no, please no, said Alex Cora, who had a two-run homer, a run-scoring infield out, and a triple that came within 2 feet of being a homer during yesterday's 7-4 Red Sox conquest of the Yankees. "Not at all," he protested when asked if he thought he should be starting over the struggling Dustin Pedroia. "I don't make decisions. You go in, see your name on the card, and go do your best. " Cora's best is always pretty good, but lately his best has been superb.

By Peter Abraham, Globe Staff Great stat from Bill Chuck of Billy-Ball.com: Since 2004, the Red Sox have had 24 different shortstops. In that same time period, the Yankees have used 15 different shortstops with Derek Jeter playing 1,188 games. Here's a breakdown of the Red Sox starters: 2004 Pokey Reese 56 Orlando Cabrera 58 Nomar Garciaparra 37 Cesar Crespo 7 Ricky Gutierrez 3 Mark Bellhorn 1 2005 Edgar Renteria 150 Ramon Vazquez 6 Alex Cora 5 Mark Bellhorn 1 2006 Alex Gonzalez 110 Alex Cora 47 ...

Coming soon to a theater near you: “The Nick Green Story.’’ Surely Matt Damon can slide this one into his schedule. Forget “Fever Pitch.’’ That was fictional. This guaranteed blockbuster would be a full-blown biopic, the rags-to-riches story of a career spare part who lands in Boston and becomes a folk hero. It’s got everything, including the unhappy year languishing as a discarded Yankee. A chance to bash the Yankees about the One Who Got Away? Irresistible.

FORT MYERS, Fla. - Carl Lowell returns home at least once a year to reunite with his old teammates, the men he played with on the Puerto Rican national team. He looks forward to the trips more than anything, and he felt pride when he learned his son, Mike, would someday make those same trips. Mike Lowell badly wanted to play for Puerto Rico in this spring's World Baseball Classic. He talked with former Red Sox teammate Alex Cora last season and imagined what the team would look like.

It was just a year and a half ago - after a miserable April - that Dustin Pedroia's batting average sat at .172. The calls were coming for Alex Cora to replace the Red Sox rookie at second base, the pressure was mounting, and yet Pedroia didn't seem ready to crumble. He knew he could hit .300. He had done it at every level of professional baseball, and there was no reason for it to stop. Since then, Pedroia has gone from overmatched to overwhelming. And yesterday the second baseman rounded out his spate of postseason awards (Gold Glove, Silver Slugger)

The Red Sox confirmed yesterday what everyone knew to be true. Even after getting shelled in Game 4 of the American League Championship Series, Tim Wakefield remains a bargain too good to pass up. At roughly 2:20 p.m., the Sox announced that they have exercised Wakefield's contract option for the 2009 season. By doing so, they guaranteed the 42-year-old knuckleballer a base salary of $4 million next year and triggered another option for 2010. Since 2005, Wakefield's contract has contained a unique provision, a "regenerating" option at the end of every year.

ANAHEIM, Calif. - Why was this night different from all the other nights? Oh, that's right. It wasn't. Daisuke Matsuzaka was pitching, so that meant it was going to be an adventure by definition. He came in with a certain M.O., and he definitely did not disappoint. This was no celebrity double. This was the real Dice -K, all right. "Surviving Dice-K. " If you were writing a screenplay based on last night's backbreaking 7-5 conquest of the Angels, that would be an appropriate title.

No one in the dugout cringed. No one suffered that spontaneous reaction when the air goes out in a rush. But that was the experience in the stands, the surprise audible among the 37,039 who packed Fenway Park last night. Even as the ball ripped off J.D. Drew's bat into the glove of a leaping Miguel Tejada in the seventh inning, the "what if" moment in an evening full of them, Julio Lugo said no one wearing a Red Sox uniform felt such disappointment. Whether he can speak for his teammates or not, the reality can't be challenged.

Coming soon to a theater near you: "The Nick Green Story. " Surely Matt Damon can slide this one into his schedule. Forget "Fever Pitch. " That was fictional. This guaranteed blockbuster would be a full-blown biopic, the rags-to-riches story of a career spare part who lands in Boston and becomes a folk hero. It's got everything, including the unhappy year languishing as a discarded Yankee. A chance to bash the Yankees about the One Who Got Away? Irresistible. Stealin' money.

Sit down, put your feet up, pour yourself a nice glass of wine. Just relax. This year the Red Sox are playing with house money. The pressure's on the Orange County American League Baseball Representatives, who clinched the AL West sometime around the Fourth of July and who have been proclaimed by many experts to be the best team in baseball. And if there's any teeny-weeny bit of pressure left over, it's on the cuddly Tampa Bay Rays, who can't afford to do a complete header in the playoffs, not if they want anyone to show up at the Trop next year.

Five playoffs in six years. Not bad. Not bad at all. The Red Sox made it official last night, clinching a spot in the playoffs for the fifth time since 2003. We were getting a little worried. The Sox whittled their magic number to 1 Sunday but failed to clinch Monday in a game that should have been a mortal lock (Josh Beckett vs. Zach Jackson). When the Yankees took a 2-0 lead in Toronto last night while the Sox fell behind the Tribe at Fenway, it started to feel like the interminable wait for Yaz's 3,000th hit. I was afraid Heidi Watney was going to have to...