Nothing Little about Sunday’s Red Sox series finale

BALTIMORE — The Red Sox are going to Williamsport.

The final game of their series with the Orioles on Sunday will be Major League Baseball’s annual Little League Classic, played at Muncy Bank Ballpark at Historic Bowman Field, about 15 minutes from the site of the ongoing Little League World Series.

Manager alex cora has never been to Williamsport, Pa. His brother joey corathird base coach for the Mets, went two or three years ago and said it was a great experience.

“You just have to go there with an open mind,” Alex Cora said. “The kids, they’re looking forward to meeting us and I’m looking forward to hanging out with them.”

Cora’s father, Josephfounded the Little League chapter in Alex’s hometown of Caguas, Puerto Rico, in 1969. Cora said the foundation of his father’s program was not to build big leaguers but big league citizens.

“There’s been a lot of big leaguers that came from our program, but like my mom says, you know, a lot of professionals that came from our program, too. That’s the most important thing,” Cora said.

New England’s representative in this year’s World Series is from Middleboro, and played Saturday night to remain in the double-elimination tournament. jason varitek played in the 1984 Little League World Series, leading his Altamonte Springs, Fla., team to a United States championship.

Allowed a 27th roster spot for Sunday, the Sox recalled Franchy Corderowho was hitting .386/.451/.705 this month with Triple A Worcester entering Saturday.

Dim times for Josh Taylor

It doesn’t sound as if Josh Taylor (lower back strain) will make his first 2022 appearance for the Red Sox any time soon. Taylor continues to go through his progression, Cora said, but with just 41 games remaining after Saturday, seeing Taylor at the big league level this year seems increasingly unlikely.

“He has good days and bad days. He hasn’t been able to actually take the next step physically and that doesn’t help mechanics-wise,” Cora said. “It’s all health-related. He hasn’t been able to have like three positive days in a row.”

Taylor went out on two rehab assignments this season. Both times, he was shut down.

“He’s a guy that thought he was going to be part of this, and let’s see what happens in the future,” Cora said. “But as of now, he’s just going through his progression of it.”

subtracting additions

eric hosmer left Saturday’s contest in the fifth inning with low back pain. He had been hit by a pitch in the second and grounded out in the fourth; bobby dalbec replaced him at first base. Hosmer is day-to-day. The move came after Tommy Pham was out of the lineup following his removal from Friday’s game with lower back tightness. Pham said he feels the tightness more when he runs than when he swings, and that an injured list stint “is not an option.” He’s considered day-to-day and could play in Sunday’s series finale, Cora said. . . Brayan Bello (left groin strain) threw 80 pitches Friday in a rehab start for Worcester and looked sharp. The team will make a decision this coming week on whether to keep Bello on the major league roster.

Julian McWilliams can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @byJulianMack.