MINNEAPOLIS — Red Sox manager Alex Cora has quite the way of explaining baseball. When the league decided in 2020 that extra-inning games would include placing a base runner on second base to start each half-inning, Cora pushed for chaos.
"If it's up to me," he told Boston reporters that year, "I'll go man on second no outs in the 10th, first and second no outs in the 11th, bases loaded and one out in the 12th. I guarantee you the game will be over at one point."
The "ghost runner" was baseball's plan to deal with the pandemic games. It was viewed as necessary to help teams protect their pitchers, a temporary rule to get through unique and trying times.
