Who knows how we will look back at Thursday afternoon's Red Sox 12-9 win over the Tigers.
Perhaps it's nothing more than a sloppy, 4-hour, 13-minute victory against a really bad Detroit club. A necessary evil.
Or maybe, just maybe, it was the day the Red Sox stumbled upon the player they thought might be coming back from Kansas City in exchange for Andrew Benintendi.
Perhaps this was where we get to meet a Franchy Cordero we hadn't quite met yet.
Franchy
— Red Sox Stats (@redsoxstats) May 6, 2021
110 mph double
104 mph single
107 mph single
The outfielder -- who had been put in the crosshairs of virtually anyone trying to identify the flaws of Alex Cora's club thanks to not claiming a single hit in his last 25 at-bats -- wasn't even supposed to play in this series finale. But play, he did.
"We know the talent that he has, obviously," said Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts of Cordero. "We played against him a couple of times. I actually saw him play a couple of times when he was with San Diego and Kansas City when he was on TV. We all know the potential that he has. Sometimes it’s tough for someone coming into a new organization, especially playing in this type of market compared to the other ones he was a part of. It’s just him trying to get comfortable and used to the new environment and the expectation that is here. Everyone that is here wants to win and wants you to be successful and productive to help the team. If you don’t do that they will get on you about it. It was definitely a great day for him. Hopefully tomorrow he’s back in the lineup and he does the same thing, just go out and get another four hits and he’ll be fine."
Enrique Hernandez doubled in the first inning, moved to third and then came out of the game due to a tweaked right hamstring. That paved the way for Cordero's appearance. (He, along with Christian Vazquez, were really the only two viable position players available.)
So, there Cordero was, hitting leadoff. It's a spot that ultimately would seem to fit him just fine.
First came as second-inning double, driving in the Red Sox' second run. Then in the sixth Cordero led off with a single via another liner into right field. The next frame saw another base-hit. And, finally, in the eighth with the game tied and runners on first and third, came the punctuation.
With Detroit bringing in lefty reliever Gregory Soto to face the lefty-hitting outfielder, Cordero managed to get enough of a two-strike, 96 mph sinker to dribble it to the left side of the infield.
It resulted in the decisive error and an entirely different perspective than hovered over the outfielder four hours before.
