Yankees - 4, Red Sox - 0
ALEX CORA: I want to start by congratulating Booney, Cash, and the Yankees and advancing to the next round. It is a special good team, and wish them nothing but the best.
Q. Alex, how tough was the bottom of the fourth, how tough was that, the way it unfolded?
ALEX CORA: We didn't play defense. The pop-up, drops, there's a double, and there's a walk, and they didn't hit the ball hard, but they found holes. It just happened fast.
The kid did a good job. He threw the ball well, induced them to weak contact, but it didn't happen for us tonight.
Q. Defense was an issue often throughout the season. At the start of the postseason, did you worry that that could become kind of your fatal flaw and that something could happen like the fourth?
ALEX CORA: No, no, no. Especially with the outfield.
Q. Alex, I wonder what you think about the performance of their starter tonight?
ALEX CORA: We needed to be perfect tonight, because he was perfect. The stuff is outstanding. He was under control. That was electric. That was electric.
Q. Alex, on that play, who should have taken charge of that ball do you think?
ALEX CORA: I think Wilyer broke back, right, with a swing. Just somebody, right? They make that play. They make that play. With the swing, he didn't get a good jump and it just landed there. That's a play we make.
Q. Obviously got out of hand on Connelly. How did you think he pitched?
ALEX CORA: Pitched well. It's good stuff. It's good stuff. You know, just a few balls that went by, right? The Rosario and Volpe, but he made pitches. And he didn't get rattled. It was good to see.
Q. How would you sum up the season? Tough early going, proved throughout the summer, yet disappointing ending?
ALEX CORA: We didn't finish the way we wanted. That's not -- kind of like that's not great, but we will sit down and reflect how the season went. We will talk about it in the upcoming days.
That's an organization, compared to other years, we took a step forward in certain areas. Like I always said, we are not a perfect team. We are a good team that needs to keep improving, and let's see what the offseason brings. But I truly believe we are going to keep getting better.
Q. Kind of going off of that, Alex, I know we asked you a bunch of times about the young guys here, the young core. What did you see from that group and kind of what they might bring to the future of the club?
ALEX CORA: It is good. Last offseason everybody talked about the position players, but we can pitch. You know, all of those kids that came up did a good job. Like I have been saying the last two weeks, they didn't come here just to get their feet wet like in the past, right? They came here to contribute. I think as an organization we are in a great, great, great place.
Q. How did the loss of Roman shape the last month for you guys?
ALEX CORA: I mean, offensively we know how capable he is, right, what he brings to the equation, the at-bat; but throughout the season, we lost a lot of guys. And we kept grinding, you know, and then the guys did an outstanding job battling and put us in a situation to win games.
Q. Alex, after the game was there any kind message to the team?
ALEX CORA: I had a blast this year. Like I said before, pulling for them, grinding with them. Me and my family really enjoyed this season. The last few years have been tough with the up and downs, and where we were as an organization, but I think the front office has done an amazing job pushing forward in certain areas, and it was a fun season. It was.
Obviously, we should feel the way we feel right now, because we had bigger goals, but when we have time to reflect how we did things this year, this is what the Boston Red Sox are, you know. It is a good group. It is a good group.
They are fun. They are intense when they play. They really like each other. Probably the other 29 teams can say the same thing, right? But I had fun managing this team. It was great.
THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Alex?
ALEX CORA: Thank you for everything.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports