We all have 20/20 vision once the game has ended. What is difficult is making the decisions with the game on the line. Do Cora´s decisions look bad now? Of course they do. That is because the result is not what we expected/desired. But truthfully, do we have a more talented LHP in the bullpen than Darwinzon? I fear we do not. You have to go with what you have.
In my humble opinion, what happened yesterday is that we have very young and inexperienced talented pitchers in the bullpen. We are all pointing our fingers at Darwinzon, but the real problem was Houck. In the seventh inning we was incapable of throwing a FB for a strike. This is very common with young pitchers, nothing to be worried about. He simply lost his slot. In truth, he was extremely fortunate to get out of that inning unscathed. I was quite surprised that he came out again for the 8th inning. I believe that is on the coaching staff. They have to be able to "read between the lines" and know when a pitcher needs to be replaced before it is too late. And yesterday they were late.
Then again, I would never have put Brasier on the mound for the 8th. Despite that, he pitched extremely well in the 9th. Would he have been as effective if he had stepped on the rubber on the 8th? We will never know.
In addition, what did Cora say to Darwinzon in his visit to the mound. I can only guess he said something like, "Don't shoot your yourself in the foot. Throw a f....ing strike and get ahead". At least that's what it seems from what happened later. What would have happened if instead he had said: "Ok, now Stanton is waiting for a 1st pitch FB down the middle. F...k it, throw him a slider for a strike. He'll swing right through it. And after that, putting in a rocking chair: up, down, in, out, speed him up, slow him down......You are in charge! You are the boss!". Believe me, I have had both types of conversations with pitchers in my career as a pitching coach and head coach, so has every other manager in baseball.
What we do know is that we have very talented, young pitchers who will only get better with the proper seasoning.
Most importantly, I am much more optimistic with the future of the Red Sox now than a few weeks ago, let alone in February.