Red Sox manager Alex Cora, as the Sox were honored before a Patriots-Packers game at Gillette Stadium last November. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Spring training's underway for the defending champion Red Sox, and manager Alex Cora's hoping to keep the momentum going.
"We know it's gonna be a challenge," Cora said. "There's a lot of good teams out there. But, you know, it's a continuation of what we did last year as far as showing up every day, work, and then go out there and play. We won the division three times in a row, last year we won the World Series, so there's something good going on the last few years. It's just a matter of, keep preaching our principles, and keep doing the things that we feel are gonna make us a better team, and if we do that, we're gonna be in good shape."
Boston's coming off a team-record 108 regular season wins and another 11 in the playoffs. It's hard to get much better.
Patriots are fresh off a title, and they're also the last NFL team to repeat as champs. Hasn't been done in baseball since the Yankees three-peated from 1998 to 2000.
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Cora told MLB Network what he'd like to ask Pats coach Bill Belichick about the challenge of repeating.
"What changes? Because something has to change," he said. "If you don't change a few things, it's gonna be hard to do it."
The Red Sox haven't repeated as World Series champs since they had Babe Ruth.
WBZ NewsRadio's Adam Kaufman (@AdamMKaufman) reports