Ruben Amaro Jr. had one of the best views in the house of a Boston Red

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Sox team on the brink of something special.Amaro just wished he could have stuck around another season as first base coach to watch the Red Sox play in the World Series.As he prepares to moonlight as an actor on the 1980-something sitcom “The Goldbergs http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authentic-curtis-granderson-jersey ,” Amaro is keeping a close eye on his old ballclub.“It’s tough to watch and I’m absolutely rooting for them,” Amaro said Thursday. “I’d love to be a part of it. I still feel like a part of that family. You get close to the players, the people in the front office, the staff. I still email and text them regularly. No animosity toward the organization at all. Things have to change sometimes. It’s just unfortunate I’m not a part of it.”Amaro was caught up in an organizational shake up after manager John Farrell was fired and several coaches were let go at the end of 2017. The Red Sox moved on with manager Alex Cora and they are halfway to a World Series championship. The Red Sox lead 2-0 with Game 3 Friday in Los Angeles. The Dodgers need a win to avoid an 0-3 deficit that no World Series team has ever recovered from.Amaro said the difference between last season’s 93-win team and this season has been the acquisition of J.D. Martinez, who blossomed into an MVP candidate who helped Boston win a franchise-record 108 games.“The one thing we did lack last year was a J.D. Martinez-type,” Amaro said. “Alex has done a really nice job and they’ve responded real well to him so you have to give some kudos to him, too.”Amaro spent this season coaching the New York Mets in his third season on the field after a lengthy career in Philadelphia. Amaro rose from team batboy in 1980-83 to playing for the Phillies for five seasons in the 1990s. He spent 10 seasons as assistant general manager and became GM once Pat Gillick retired after the Phillies won the 2008 World Series. Amaro was in charge when the Phillies won the 2009 NL pennant, three division titles and most wins in franchise history (102) in 2011. He was fired in 2015.He’s considered a front office comeback.“I itch at times to get that opportunity again. Don’t know if it will ever happen,” he said. “I do have some interest in doing that. But now that I’m back on the field, you get that other itch to consider the possibility of doing some managing.”The Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers are the only teams with managerial vacancies, a role coaching with the Red Sox got him closer to chasing.“The important element of that was to get a much better understanding on the ground level of analytics and the role it plays in baseball,” Amaro said. “There’s a lot of good people over there in that area that I got a chance to be around and be able to utilize their information for my job.”Amaro may be rooting for the Red Sox over LA — but he’s ready for his close up in Hollywood.It’s a familiar role: Amaro will again play his father, who spent 58 years in the game, most of them with the Phillies, on “The Goldbergs.” Show creator Adam F. Goldberg attended William Penn Charter High School where Amaro Jr. was a star athlete George Bell Jersey , and 30 years later has been incorporated into the semi-autobiographical ABC show. Amaro was the captain of 1987 national champion Stanford baseball team while Goldberg was at Penn Charter. But stretching creative license, they are friends and attend school at the same time on the show. Amaro plays his father for the second time in Wednesday’s episode, “Fiddler.”Amaro Sr. died at 81 in 2017 after a long battle with cancer.“Being able to pay homage is pretty special. My dad battled cancer for about 30 years and toward the end of his life he struggled with it,” Amaro said. “It was neat for me to play … well, not to get too sappy about it, but it made me pretty emotional.”He’s more prepared for a second act in the front office — just like he was on “The Goldbergs.”“It was a little easier the second time around. My first time I only had one line and it took 20 takes to get it,” he said, laughing. Chris Sale is all set to start Game 1 at Fenway Park. If the Boston Red Sox later need him for middle relief, he’s ready. Or a setup spot, sure.“I mean, it’s postseason baseball. You have to be prepared for anything,” the All-Star lefty said.Especially when it comes to pitching, particularly after seeing the likes of Justin Verlander, Clayton Kershaw, Max Scherzer and other All-Star aces working in unusual roles during recent Octobers.Because as managers’ moves this month have proven — some worked Dave Winfield Jersey , some didn’t — the winning strategy might be getting the best guy on the mound at the key moment, no matter when that comes.“That’s what it is. You’re using your team’s talents the best way you can to win games,” Milwaukee manager Craig Counsell said Thursday, a day before the Brewers host the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series.Sale and the Red Sox take on the Houston Astros in the ALCS beginning Saturday night.Relievers have accounted for 48.8 percent of innings in the playoffs so far, topping last year’s record of 46.5 percent for the whole postseason. By comparison, five years ago in 2013, relievers threw 35.7 percent of postseason innings.But the remaining teams haven’t been as quick to the bullpen as the trend might suggest.The World Series champion Astros and Los Angeles are bucking the relief revolution movement, with the Dodgers at 30 percent bullpen usage and Houston at 36. Interestingly, those ‘pens are also 1-2 in lowest ERA this postseason with marks under 1.00.Kershaw will start the NLCS opener for the Dodgers. He threw four scoreless innings in middle relief in Game 7 of the World Series last year, and earned his only big league save in the clinching game of the 2016 playoffs against Washington.As for letting bullpens handle a bulk of the load, “If it works, it’s great,” he said Thursday.“I’m kind of a traditionalist when it comes to baseball. But when it comes down the postseason, you’ve got to win games,” Kershaw said. “It’s probably tough to sustain for a full season … but definitely makes sense for a postseason.”Even when teams have gone to the bullpen Jack Morris Jersey , it hasn’t necessarily been for a traditional reliever. The Red Sox bullpen was seen as a potential weakness this October, so rookie manager Alex Cora didn’t hesitate to use Sale — who started Game 1 of the ALDS — for the eighth inning this week, trying to finish off New York at Yankee Stadium.“He was in the bullpen, but it was kind of like his day. Everybody was on board. I even shouted to the dugout, ‘Hey, we’re all in! He’s coming in,'” Cora said.Cora also employed former Cy Young Award winner Rick Porcello to start and relieve against the Yankees.The Brewers are the only team among the final four to use relievers for more outs than starters. At a time when more teams are using relievers to start for an inning or two, the Brewers went that way in their NL Division Series opener against Colorado. Reliever Brandon Woodruff began with three hitless innings.“Look, it’s no secret that we’re going to use our pitching a little differently than traditionally, than the traditionalists would like,” Counsell said.“We know we’ve got a lot of guys, the depth of our staff is what is the most meaningful thing for me when we kind of figure out how we do this,” he said.Cora was Houston’s bench coach last year when Astros manager AJ Hinch mixed and matched. Verlander and Sale started against each other in Game 1 of the ALDS, then worked opposite each other as relievers in Game 4.In Game 7 of the ALCS versus the Yankees, Charlie Morton started for the Astros with five shutout innings and Lance McCullers Jr. finished with four shutout frames.In Game 7 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium http://www.bluejaysfanproshop.com/authentic-curtis-granderson-jersey , McCullers started and was pulled in the third. Morton finished with four strong innings, while Verlander and former Cy Young Award winner Dallas Keuchel were loose in the Houston bullpen.Morton and Keuchel both threw simulated games Thursday, prompting a question about whether either could relieve in the first two games at Boston. Verlander and Gerrit Cole will start those matchups.“I know that the days of creativity and how pitchers are being used and how I used our rotation last year is probably why you’re asking the question,” Hinch said.“I think given the agony that we’re going through in these bullpen decisions and the options that we have in the ‘pen and the performance of our ‘pen and the depth of ‘pen, I see it less likely than ever initially in this series for me having to get that creative with our starters,” he said.Counsell played for the Arizona Diamondbacks when they won the 2001 World Series. Imposing aces Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling started five times in the seven-game win over the Yankees, with Johnson also working once in relief.“I’m not trying to — we’re not trying to eliminate the need for great starting pitching,” Counsell said. “I mean, Randy Johnson would be probably first in my draft list. If you could pick a player for me to take in the series, I’d say him in a heartbeat.”“It would be nice to have him. Our team’s different, you know, and so we’re going to try to — and we’re trying to figure out what’s the best way for us to put together a tough 27 outs and make it tough on them and get those outs as fast as we can,” he said. “And so we’re considering a different way to put that puzzle together.”