Major League Baseball is investigating Red Sox manager Alex Cora regarding comments he made on Saturday, reports the New York Post. Cora believed the Yankees hit Rafael Devers on purpose and seemed to indicate Sunday that the Red Sox attempted to hit Aaron Judge in retaliation, only to miss. The league is “reviewing the situation” and has yet to reach a decision, according to the Post.
Yankees ace Gerrit Cole was roughed up by the Red Sox Saturday in a 7-1 loss. In the fourth inning, with New York up 1-0, Cole decided to intentionally walk Red Sox third baseman Devers with no baserunners and one out (full story here).
While the focus for many was on the oddity of the IBB, Red Sox manager Alex Cora went elsewhere. Specifically, he connected the dots from that free pass to the first inning, when Cole hit Devers with a pitch. Cora’s theory was that Cole didn’t want to face Devers, illustrated by the intentional walk, so that HBP on an 0-1 cutter must’ve been intentional.
“I felt like the first at-bat, he hit him on purpose,” said Cora (via NESN). “He doesn’t wanna face him, that’s the bottom line. He told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat he hit him. We’ll leave it at that. After that, he had bases loaded and had to face him.”
As Cora noted, the third plate appearance for Devers came with the bases loaded. With no place to put him, Cole allowed a two-RBI single.
“We took exception to (the HBP) because it was loud and clear that he didn’t want to face him,” Cora said. “It was intentional, I’m not gonna back off. It was intentional.”
In the sixth inning of Saturday’s game, Red Sox starter Brayan Bello faced Aaron Judge and threw the first pitch behind his knees, missing the Yankees slugger. On Sunday, Cora appeared to admit that this was when the Red Sox were trying to even the score by hitting Judge on purpose.
“It was closed [Saturday] around the sixth inning. We had our chance. It didn’t happen.”
Before Saturday, Devers was 14 for 41 (.341) with a double and eight home runs in his career — regular season and postseason combined — against Cole. All eight home runs have come between 2021 and 2024. The last time they faced each was on July 6, when Devers homered in his third and final at-bat against Cole.
