Major League Baseball is investigating comments made by Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora over the weekend, according to a report.
Cora believed the New York 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.
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 Devers with no baserunners and one out.
Cora 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,\" Cora said. \"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.\"
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,\" he said.
Via New York Post