The Boston Red Sox will be without manager Alex Cora on Monday, though he has a good reason for his absence. Instead of being with the Red Sox for their series opener against the New York Mets at Fenway Park, Cora will attend his daughter Camila’s college graduation ceremony at Boston College.

And Cora has absolutely no regrets about his decision.

“It’s going to be a very special day, one that I’m not going to miss,” Cora said before the team’s 10-4 loss to the Atlanta Braves on Sunday, via The Associated Press. “I 100% will miss the game for that. I will do that any given day. It’s going to be a very special day for us.”

Advertisement

Cora is in his seventh season as the Red Sox’s manager this summer. He holds a 544-475 overall record, and he helped lead the team to its World Series title in 2018. The franchise had made the playoffs once since then.

The Red Sox dropped to 23-25 with their loss Sunday, which marked their fifth defeat in six games. Boston will host the Mets for three games starting Monday, then they will host the Baltimore Orioles for a four-game series starting Thursday. Cora will be back in the dugout Tuesday.

“It’s going to be an amazing day. It happened fast,” Cora said of Monday’s ceremony. “You put everything into perspective, you go back to the videos of ’18 [when we won the World Series], she was a little girl … Now, she’s not a little girl. She’s a woman. She had fun with it. She’s a great student, and the future’s bright for her.”