Inside The Pinstripes

MLB Makes Decision on Alex Cora After Hinting Red Sox Threw at Yankees' Aaron Judge

The MLB has decided whether to punish Red Sox manager Alex Cora for controversial comments he made regarding Aaron Judge over the weekend.

Grant Young

Aug 15, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora (left) and coach Andy Fox (right) prior to the game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images
Aug 15, 2024; Baltimore, Maryland, USA; Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora (left) and coach Andy Fox (right) prior to the game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images / Mitch Stringer-Imagn Images
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The past weekend's series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees was a strange one; especially Saturday's game, which Boston won 7-1.

The most notable moment from this game came when Yankees' ace Gerrit Cole intentionally walked Boston slugger Rafael Devers with nobody on base in the fourth inning.

His doing so convinced Red Sox manager Alex Cora that Cole clearly didn't want to face Devers that day, which led Cora to believe that Cole had hit Devers intentionally during the first inning.

This prompted Cora to hint that Boston pitcher Brayan Bello throwing a pitch behind Aaron Judge in the sixth inning of that game was intentional after the game ended.

While Judge didn't seem to take issue with the allegedly intentional hit-by-pitch attempt, Major League Baseball certainly did; which is proven by a September 16 article from the New York Post's Mark W. Sanchez that said, "Major League Baseball is looking into Alex Cora’s comments suggesting the Red Sox threw at Aaron Judge on purpose.

"The league was reviewing the situation with no decision reached as of late Monday evening."

The MLB has now reached their decision.

Cora will not be suspended for what he said, as first reported by Chris Cotillo of MassLive on Tuesday.

While all indications are that Bello did indeed try to hit Judge with that pitch in the sixth inning (which Cora likely urged him to try and do), these forms of retaliation are, as Judge said on Sunday, "kind of the way this game gets policed and has been policed for over 100 years."

Boston being knocked out of playoff contention after losing the weekend's series to the Yankees is probably punishment enough for Cora.

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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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