Cora steered the Red Sox to a team-record 108 wins in the regular season, then Boston topped the 100-win Yankees and Astros in the playoffs. Along the way, it seemed he could do no wrong.

The Sox scored three runs in the seventh, one in the eighth, and five in the ninth, giving their own relievers the insurance runs they needed to close out a 9-6 victory to give the Red Sox a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.

'Those last nine innings or so just kind of blended together.'

'That was very, very, very, very, very poor baserunning by me.'

A few hours after the Red Sox won Game 2, Betts and his cousin were spotted providing hot meals to the homeless outside the Boston Public Library.

'None of the homeless even knew who he was, but they were just grateful for what he was doing.'

Do you think it gives the Red Sox an unfair advantage?

The three-time NL Cy Young Award winner fell to 9-9 in the postseason, his October results falling short of his brilliant regular-season resume.

'I think that that's very exciting for a baseball purist that loves to see what managers think and how you can kind of match up against the opposition.'

Sale said Monday that he is back to 100 percent, and he deflected questions about the illness that melted even more weight away from his 6-foot-6, 180-pound frame.