CLEVELAND — It started to rain on Friday just a few minutes after Alex Cora was asked about the idea of managing his 1,000th regular season game. The drizzle became a downpour and Cora will have to wait until Saturday for his personal odometer to add a digit.

“He was good after the first inning,” manager Alex Cora said. “The first inning they put the ball in play. Seems like we made some adjustments or game-planning wise. They got three or four hits on the split, their lefties, and they scored four.”

Following a brutal year-plus, Lucas Giolito has finally reached the end of a long road to recovery. The veteran starting pitcher is set to make his Boston Red Sox debut. After undergoing an internal brace procedure to repair a partial tear in his UCL in 2024 and enduring a hamstring injury in March,