Red Sox manager Alex Cora won't be suspended by MLB for comments about pitch to Aaron Judge

SEATTLE – Fitting comfortably in the dog-bites-man category, Major League Baseball chose not to suspend Red Sox manager Alex Cora for his comments over the weekend that strongly hinted one of his pitchers intentionally threw at Aaron Judge during Saturday afternoon’s game at the Stadium.

A league source told Newsday’s David Lennon – as well as other outlets, most of which were from Boston and New York, who inquired – on Tuesday that MLB’s perfunctory review of the matter showed it did not rise to the level of suspension-worthy.

Indications are Cora, in his conversation with the league, demonstrated the repentance MLB was looking for, allowing the situation to be quickly disposed of.

Cora said after Saturday’s game that he thought Gerrit Cole intentionally threw at Rafael Devers in the first inning.

Cole hit the third baseman, who has mostly owned the Yankees ace throughout their careers, with a first-inning cutter. Then, in the intentional-walk-heard-round-the-world, Cole raised four fingers in the fourth inning when Devers came to the plate with one out, the bases empty and the Yankees leading 1-0 (the Red Sox rallied for three runs in the fourth and jettisoned Cole during a four-run fifth).

Cole, Boone and catcher Austin Wells all emphatically denied the hit-by-pitch was on purpose. Regardless, the topic carried over to Sunday and, when Cora was asked about it before that day’s game – a 5-2 victory that gave the Yankees a series win – he said he considered the matter closed.

“It was closed [Saturday] like around the sixth inning,” Cora said. “We had our chance. Didn’t happen. And we have to move on.”

That was a reference to a wayward 97-mph sinker thrown to – or at – Judge by Boston righthander Brayan Bello leading off the sixth inning Saturday, a pitch that came in low and sailed behind the Yankee captain’s left hip area.

“Yeah, that's not allowed,” Aaron Boone said after Sunday’s game upon learning of Cora’s pregame remarks. “That's for somebody else to deal with. So we're finished playing with them for now. So we're on to Seattle now. But you can't do that.”

Before the Yankees started a three-game series against the Mariners Tuesday night in Seattle, Boone said he was fine with the league’s decision, though he still got a small dig in at the Red Sox who, while not mathematically eliminated from playoff contention, are a postseason long-shot at best.

“Chances are we’re not going to play them anymore this year,” Boone said. “And like I said, we have too much important things going in front of us right now to really get caught up in that. I’m sure Major League Baseball did what they thought was best and looked into it. And it’s not for us to really get involved in anymore.”

Cora said he had separate conversations with Judge and Boone in the time between Saturday’s game and Sunday’s.

“We talked, and there's two ways of seeing it, right? Their dugout and our dugout,” Cora, a friend of Boone’s from their days together a decade ago as ESPN analysts, said of his chat with the Yankees’ manager. “And, like I told him, ‘Put yourself in our shoes and you will understand why we feel this way.’ We’ll leave it at that.”

Judge, thrown at plenty in his big-league career but typically nonchalant about it in the aftermath, took that tact Sunday.

“It was a good convo. I'll kind of keep it at that,” said Judge. “You play this game for a while, things like that happen. I know they're upset that three of their guys got hit that day, and I think they're just protecting their players. So something's got to happen, and that's the way this game kind of gets policed. It's been policed for over 100 years. So I think the biggest thing is, just don't miss when you do it.”

Day off for Volpe

Slumping second-year shortstop Anthony Volpe, 25-for-129 (.194) in his last 36 games, was on the bench Tuesday night, just the third game this year the 23-year-old was out of the starting lineup, but the second one in the last eight contests.

Volpe, in a 4-for-37 (.108) skid his last 11 games, is hitting .246 with 11 homers and a .663 OPS this season. Volpe’s previous day out of the lineup was Sept. 9 against the Royals, though he entered that game, a 10-4 victory, as a pinch runner in the eighth inning.

With David Lennon