Cora put in tough spot after Bellhorn injured

Mark Bellhorn was already in the clubhouse -- thumb X-rayed, ice on -- when it happened.

He had left the game before the top of the eighth inning after injuring his left thumb diving for a Jason Giambi grounder. That left newly acquired Alex Cora, who is hitting .199 this season, up with a two-run deficit and a chance to steal a win from the Yankees in the finale of their four-game series.

Bellhorn saw Cora slap a Mariano Rivera fastball to Alex Rodriguez, who was in on the grass at third. He saw Rodriguez's throw home. He saw catcher Jorge Posada's relay to first to get Cora. He saw a bases-loaded, no-outs situation degenerate into a second-and-third-two-down situation.

He saw it all but couldn't do a thing about it.

With the shift on for Giambi in the fourth, Bellhorn had gone into a dive. He made the out at first. His left thumb wasn't so lucky. The thumb -- the same one fractured last season on a 94-mile-per-hour fastball from Minnesota closer Joe Nathan that cost him 16 games -- bent back behind his hand. It seemed fine at the time, though he felt it on the throw to first base. It got worse as the game wore on.

''I tried to play with it and it just started tightening up on me. I couldn't squeeze the glove," Bellhorn said. ''I didn't want to take any chances. [I'll] come back tomorrow and see how it is."

Bellhorn said X-rays on the thumb were negative after Red Sox medical director Thomas Gill examined it before the end of Boston's 5-3 loss. Bellhorn wasn't sure of the exact diagnosis, but believed it to be sprained.

The Sox second baseman had already been taking abuse for much of the series. The boos had been almost as loud for him as for some of the Yankees. When Bellhorn struck out last night -- missing on an 81-m.p.h. curve from Al Leiter, it was his 17th strikeout in his last 10 games and seventh of this series.

Cora, meanwhile, was thrust into a tough situation. Bases loaded and facing the game's best closer for the first time in his career. Though it appeared on replay that Cora had beaten the throw to first, umpire Hunter Wendelstedt called him out.

''It was bang, bang," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. ''It was a great play on their part. When they had to have it, they got it. Obviously, we would've called him safe just because we wanted more opportunities. But he made a great pitch and they made a great play right when they had to have it -- or they're in a lot of trouble."

But had Bellhorn not been injured, Cora might not have been up in that spot. Francona had already pinch hit John Olerud -- batting .315 this season -- for Bellhorn in two games of the Yankees series. But with no more infielders in the dugout (and the possibility of extra innings), the manager kept Olerud on the bench.

That left Cora against Rivera.

''It was the first time I'd faced him," said Cora, who would only say he hadn't seen a replay of the play at first after the game. ''Obviously, I was looking in. He made a great pitch . . . Obviously, I hear about the guy a lot. He has a great cutter. His first pitch was a cutter, then he threw me a fastball away."

It wasn't what he was expecting. It didn't end the way he would have wanted. It likely wasn't the way Bellhorn would have planned, either. But, sitting in the clubhouse with ice on his damaged thumb, he no longer had control. Cora did.

''That's why you play the game, you want to be in that situation," Cora said. ''[Rivera] just battled. He's one of the best closers in the game.

''He made a great pitch -- and he got me out."