In the final defensive half-inning of the 2021 Red Sox season, Bobby Dalbec played second base. It was a first: Not only had he not played there in the majors, but also the minors, college, or his Cape Cod summer. He’d simply taken grounders there periodically for a month, Alex Cora fitting it under the guise of “you never know.”
It mattered little, the 5-0 Game 6 loss that put Houston back in the World Series was so complete. But it just strikes me as somehow fitting for this surprise ALCS entrant.
Cora didn’t push every right button in the end, but he couldn’t have squeezed another ounce from this Red Sox roster, rolling the bones to the final out.