Inside The Pinstripes

Alex Cora Indicates Red Sox Tried Throwing at Yankees' Aaron Judge

Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora made a surprising admission on Sunday.

Grant Young

Sep 13, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates in the dug out after hitting a grand slam home run during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Sep 13, 2024; Bronx, New York, USA; New York Yankees center fielder Aaron Judge (99) celebrates in the dug out after hitting a grand slam home run during the seventh inning against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images / Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
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The New York Yankees were defeated by the Boston Red Sox 7-1 on Saturday.

The most notable moment from the game came when Yankees' ace Gerrit Cole elected to intentionally walk Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers in the fourth inning, which incited a meltdown from Cole that ended with Boston scoring seven runs.

While this decision was confusing for many Yankees fans, Boston manager Alex Cora was more upset about the fact that Cole hit Devers with a pitch in the first inning, which he believed was intentional.

Given how revenge works in baseball, it made sense that Boston would try to hit one of the Yankees' top players as retaliation. And on Sunday, Cora admitted that his team tried to do exactly that.

Before Sunday's game, MLB.com's Red Sox insider Ian Browne posted on X, "Alex Cora said yesterday's situation is closed in his mind. 'We had our shot in the sixth inning and it didn't happen.' The sixth inning is when Bello threw behind Judge but missed him."

Given how rare it is for pitchers to miss as badly as Bello did during that pitch, it's no surprise to hear that he was throwing at the AL MVP favorite intentionally.

Cora also noted Sunday that he's using Cole hitting Devers as motivation for his team.

"If [we make the playoffs], were going to look back at yesterday. We’re probably going to thank Gerrit Cole for getting us going to be honest with you," Cora told reporters, via Max Goodman of NJ Advance Media. "Hopefully it happens. Hopefully we can face him in the playoffs because he will have to pitch to him. We still gave a long ways. I’m not promising that we’ll make the playoffs, but if we do, I think everybody is going to look back at Saturday. Hopefully it happens."

The Red Sox currently have a 6.2% chance of making the playoffs, per FanGraphs.

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Grant Young

GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers the New York Yankees, the New York Mets, and Women’s Basketball for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco, where he also played Division 1 baseball for five years. He believes Mark Teixeira should have been a first ballot MLB Hall of Fame inductee.

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