New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole has joked around that Boston Red Sox All-Star Rafael Devers is his kryptonite, and the numbers in the head-to-head matchup between pitcher and slugger say as much, too.
But the Red Sox did not expect Cole, who was dealing early Saturday afternoon, to throw up four fingers when Devers walked into the box for his second at-bat, signaling an intentional walk.
The Red Sox would go on to crush Cole that inning and knock him out of the game soon after, and they didn’t hold back their feelings for the right-handed hurler’s move to give Devers a free pass.
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“I feel like he showed a lot of weakness in that move,” Boston’s starter in the game, Brayan Bello, said through translator Carlos Villoria Benitez after the 7-1 Sox victory.
Devers himself added through Benitez: “He caught me by surprise. I didn’t expect that from a future Hall of Famer, and I feel like he panicked a little bit.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora even believes that Cole hit Devers in his first at-bat on purpose.
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“He doesn’t want to face him. That’s the bottom line,” Cora said, via ESPN. “He told us with the intentional walk that the first at-bat he hit him.”
At the time of the intentional walk, the Yankees owned a 1-0 lead after Gleyber Torres singled in a run the inning prior. But the top of the fourth saw Cole fall off the rails.
Cole, whose only runner in the game prior to the walk with one out was Devers on the hit by pitch, saw 10 of the next 12 batters reach base and runs started to pour in. It began with Masataka Yoshida’s RBI ground-rule double that scored Devers – Cole’s first hit allowed in the game – and Wilyer Abreu brought home two more with a single in the next at-bat.
The Red Sox laid four more runs on Cole in the top of the fifth inning, where the Yankees just saw a lack of confidence and control in their ace’s stuff. Cole hit a career-high three batters and gave up the most runs in an outing since June 9, 2022.
And Devers got some revenge against Cole, as he knocked in two runners that inning with a rope to right-center field. With the bases loaded at the time, Cole had to pitch to Devers, who waited on a hanging knuckle-curve and sent it flying into the outfield.
“Just a rough day,” Cole noted after the game.
“They grabbed the momentum. It inspired them,” Cole added regarding the intentional walk to Devers. “I think, looking back, it’s the wrong move.”
Of course, Yankees manager Aaron Boone was asked what exactly led to Cole intentionally walking Devers with one out and no one on base in an outing he appeared to be cruising. Boone said he and Cole discussed the possible use of intentional walks leading up to the game despite the right-hander not giving one to a hitter in seven years.
However, Cole went into the clubhouse tunnel before the fourth inning where he talked with pitching coach Matt Blake about the intentional walk with Devers coming up.
“I was a bit caught off guard,” Cole’s catcher, Austin Wells, said. “Thought he had some good momentum.”
Boone added: “Once we scored the run, my preference would have been let’s attack them. But obviously, I didn’t communicate that well enough.”
Either way, the Red Sox, who watched Aaron Judge crush a go-ahead grand slam the night before in a 5-4 loss at Yankee Stadium, needed momentum if they wished to keep their postseason dreams alive.
While the Yankees are battling for the AL East title with the Baltimore Orioles, the Red Sox are hoping they can sneak into the postseason in one of the three American League wild-card slots. The win yesterday moved them to 3.5 games back of that final slot, which is currently held by the Minnesota Twins.
The Detroit Tigers and Seattle Mariners are both a game ahead of Boston in the standings.
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