Red Sox manager Alex Cora was ejected for arguing balls and strikes on Sunday and was arguably even more fired up after the team’s dramatic 6-5 win over the Yankees.
Cora was tossed, by home plate umpire Junior Valentine, for taking exception to a called third strike Trevor Story took with the bases loaded to end the sixth inning.
Alex Cora has been ejected for the third time this season.
Absolutely brutal performance behind the plate. Surprised it took this long. pic.twitter.com/u0DylBkMTD
— Tyler Milliken ⚾️ (@tylermilliken_) August 20, 2023
Well, it was the manager’s third ejection of 2023.
Cora said he started questioning Valentine’s zone when the umpire called Adam Duvall out looking in the fourth inning.
“We’re grinding here,” Cora said. “We know what’s going on. For us, every (expletive) pitch counts. We’re not gonna give up. We’re gonna keep playing. If I get fined, I get fined. But we didn’t agree with the (expletive) strike zone today.”
Cora watched the last three innings of Boston’s win from the cafeteria in the visitor’s clubhouse at Yankee Stadium.
With the game tied 5-5, in the bottom of the eighth, Anthony Volpe hit a single to left field with Isiah Kiner-Falefa on second base.
After Rob Refsnyder slipped trying to field the ball in the outfield, Kiner-Falefa bolted for home and tried to beat Connor Wong’s tag on a relay from shortstop Trevor Story.
Kiner-Falefa was ruled safe, but the play was overturned and ruled as the third out of the inning.
Cora said that, from his vantage point, watching TV, he believed Kiner-Falefa was out from the jump. The manager thought Valentine’s handling of the play only led to more confusion.
“I was wondering why Junior was waiting,” Cora said. He waited, waited, waited to look at the baseball, and then he called him safe. I was like, ‘What is he doing?’ There’s a lot of stuff I didn’t agree with Junior today besides the strike zone.
That play, why wait? Either he’s safe from the get-go, or if you’re waiting to see if he still has the baseball, he’s out. We knew he was out.
“Good hands, good athlete. Good hands by Trevor, too. Probably, last year, that doesn’t happen. It was, kinda weird. I was watching the game like, ‘Go to second’ and then like, ‘Oh, no, go to the plate’ because he slipped. The great reaction by Ref, great reaction by Trevor, and great play by Wonger.”
An MLB replay supervisor said that after reviewing all relevant angles, he determined that Wong tagged Kiner-Falefa before he touched home plate, leading to the call getting overturned on Boston’s challenge.
The Yankees then challenged to see if Wong was blocking the plate, and the official ruled that the catcher moved in reaction to the trajectory of the hop and the throw, avoiding any violation.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone said he couldn’t tell in real time whether Kiner-Falefa was out or safe.
“We weren’t sure in there what it was gonna be,” Boone said. “I haven’t looked at it fully. I’m sure they have evidence that he got him before he got to the plate. There are always plays in games. You’ve gotta keep moving.”
After the win, Cora gave a brief postgame speech to a raucous Red Sox clubhouse. “I hate getting thrown out,” he said. “I hate to watch the game from inside and delay and all that stuff. I don’t get paid for that.”
