Red Sox finding success after manager Cora shaves beard

The Boston Red Sox weren’t living up to expectations in April, struggling to generate offense and hold leads toward the end of games.

That’s when their manager, Alex Cora, made a change — prompted by his girlfriend.

Cora was modeling a new beard to start the season, but on May 10, he shaved it, a request that his girlfriend had made quite some time before he actually did it. 

And ever since then, the Red Sox have been rolling.

Coincidence? Maybe. 

Cora made light of the notion that the Red Sox broke through based on the absence of his facial hair.

“Like I said, if we depend on my facial hair, then we really suck. We are not good,” Cora told reporters prior to Thursday’s game against the Los Angeles Angels, per MassLive.

Yes, the Los Angeles Angels cooled Boston off with a 5-2 victory, ending Boston’s seven-game winning streak and also snapping their own 14-game losing streak. But Cora contributes Boston’s recent turnaround to players finding their groove.

“One of the things baseball players do is fall into their routine,” Cora said. “And it felt like when we got to Atlanta for the first time the whole season, we were able to do stuff outside with good weather. … But that was the first time since spring training that we were able to actually move around and start doing things on the field. You start feeling your hands. The weather is great. The ball starts flying, and you start feeling good about yourself.

“Little by little, we’ve been able to do our routine and start feeling good about ourselves. I think it’s more that than actually my facial hair.”