BOSTON -- With Boston's bullpen finally at full strength, manager Alex Cora is excited about the depth he will have in that department down the stretch, and he looks forward to deploying pitchers in the roles they are best suited for.

However, closer will not be among the roles listed on his depth chart. Instead, Cora will go with the most favorable matchups in the late innings, including the ninth.

Adam Ottavino, Garrett Whitlock, Garrett Richards, Josh Taylor and Darwinzon Hernandez are all pitchers you could see in the ninth inning. The same goes with Matt Barnes, if he can rediscover the form that made him an All-Star closer the first three months of the season.

“I think it's more about the matchups and where we're at,” said Cora. “We feel like J.T. can do the job if it’s his right pocket, and Adam, for everything he’s been through with the lefties, you know, he's done a better job against them the last month. So it's just a matter of recognizing the pocket and see where we’re at in the game, obviously, and go from there.”

The addition of power arm Tanner Houck -- who has started almost exclusively since July -- to the bullpen can be a big help, but Cora will need to keep the righty stretched out for two reasons.

The first is in the event another starting pitcher gets COVID-19. The second is because Houck might get at least one more start over the final 13 games.

Cora is suddenly deep with lefty arms in the bullpen with Taylor, Hernandez, Austin Davis and Martín Pérez.

Finally, with his full complement of arms available, Cora can use Davis as a left-on-left guy, though he obviously needs to stay in the three-batter-minimum parameter. Cora will try to use Davis in the early to middle innings, knowing he has Hernandez and Taylor to fall back on later in games.

Pérez will be used in long relief and mop-up situations.

“As far as like structure, I think they understand where we are, that we can be very creative and very aggressive, and that's the way we’re going to do it,” Cora said.

Close contacts
With ace Chris Sale revealing after his start on Friday night that he’s not vaccinated, a reporter posed an interesting question Saturday.

How concerned are the Red Sox that Sale or other unvaccinated players could risk being quarantined from their teammates for a week if they are identified as a close contact of another player who could get COVID-19?

“We’ve been doing a lot of things here as far as that," Cora said. "[Trainer] Brad [Pearson] and the medical group have done an amazing job the last 15 days with that. ... We have to be very careful.

“And it’s not only [Sale], it’s others. People who aren’t vaccinated, we’re making sure that they get their work in and they go home. I think we've done an amazing job as an organization in the last 15 days to avoid something like that.“