Red Sox manager Alex Cora implies team threw retaliatory pitch at Aaron Judge
Manager Alex Cora #13 of the Boston Red Sox makes a pitching change against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, Sep. 15, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
In the aftermath of Gerrit Cole’s controversial intentional walk of Rafael Devers on Saturday, Red Sox manager Alex Cora on Sunday seemed to admit that Boston intentionally threw at Aaron Judge in the sixth inning on Saturday.
Before Cole’s bizarre and ultimately unsuccessful intentional walk in the fourth, the Yankees ace hit Devers with a pitch in the first. Cora said after Saturday’s game that he thought Cole threw at Devers intentionally because he has had major trouble getting the Red Sox third baseman out over the years, a perception that was obviously helped by the ensuing intentional walk.
Cole and Yankees manager Aaron Boone denied there was any intent behind the hit batsman.
But Cora, in saying before Sunday’s series finale that he considered the matter closed, added: “It was closed [Saturday] like around the sixth inning. We had our chance. Didn’t happen. And we have to move on.”
By “had our chance,” Cora was apparently referring to the first pitch to Judge in the sixth from Brayan Bello, which went behind the Yankees captain’s backside.
Cora indicated that he had spoken with Judge about the incident while answering a question that was actually about whether he had spoken with “Aaron.” The questioner was asking about Boone and Cora answered about Judge.
“[The conversation was] professional,” Cora said. “He’s one of the best players in the game, and he’s the captain of the Yankees. That means a lot.”
Cora and Boone, who are friends, both said they talked about the incident.
The Red Sox won the game, 7-1, and went into Sunday 3½ games out of the final American League wild-card spot. They scored three runs in the fourth after Cole put up four fingers and sent Devers to first in a move the pitcher later said “was a mistake.”
Said Cora on Sunday: “We’re probably going to thank Gerrit Cole [for getting] us going, to be honest with you. Hopefully, it happens. And hopefully we can face them in the playoffs because he will have to pitch. But we still have a long ways. I’m not promising we’re going to make the playoffs, but if we do, I think everybody’s going to look back at Saturday.”
With David Lennon
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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