TAMPA — Alex Cora sized up the Yankees, if you will, on Friday.
“They’re tall and big and strong, and we’re tiny,” the Red Sox manager said at George M. Steinbrenner Field. “They’re big. I still remember during the fight [last year at Fenway Park], toward the end, it was [Giancarlo] Stanton, [Aroldis] Chapman, [Dellin] Betances, [Aaron] Judge and [bullpen coach] Mike Harkey. I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ Thank God it was baseball and not too many punches were thrown.”
Ah, but don’t mistake such height praise as a faux pumping-up of the opponent a la Lou Holtz in his Notre Dame days, when he could make a Division III squad sound like the 1979 Pittsburgh Steelers.