New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole hit Red Sox slugger Rafael Devers in the first inning of Saturday’s loss in the Bronx, and Boston manager Alex Cora is convinced it was intentional.
Devers saw four pitches inside Cole’s bag in his first at-bat Saturday, the last of which he caught off a pitch from the three-time All-Star. Then, in the fourth inning, Cole intentionally walked Devers even though no one was on base.
“I wasn’t surprised at all (by the intentional walk) because the first at-bat I felt (Cole) hit (Devers) on purpose,” Cora said after the Red Sox won 7-1. “He doesn’t want to face him. That’s the bottom line. He told us with the intentional walk that in the first at-bat he hit him. He hit him. … We didn’t like that.”
Devers entered 14-for-41 (.316) with eight homers against Cole, including the postseason, but was 9-for-53 (.170) with one RBI since Aug. 30.
On Saturday, Devers added a two-run single in Boston’s four-run fifth inning.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora believes Gerrit Cole was intentionally pitching at Devers
Devers (left) took a pitch to the hip from Gerrit Cole in the first on Saturday in the Bronx.
Asked about the hit he took in the first, Devers said through a translator that Cole caught him “by surprise.”
“I didn’t expect that from a future Hall of Famer and I feel like he panicked a little bit,” Devers said.
After retiring nine of his first 10 batters, Cole allowed 10 of the next 12 to reach base.
The 34-year-old right-hander allowed seven runs, his most since June 9, 2022. He hit a career-high three batters and left after 4 1/3 innings.
Brayan Bello (14-7) allowed one run and four hits in 5 1/3 innings for the Red Sox.
Boston (75-74) moved to within 3 1/2 games of Minnesota for the final AL wild card, and also had to overcome Detroit and Seattle. New York (86-63) saw its lead in the AL East cut to two games over second-place Baltimore.
Cole’s intentional walk was the pitcher’s first since he was with Pittsburgh and put Milwaukee’s Travis Shaw on base with runners on second and third in the third inning of a 2-2 game on Sept. 12, 2017.
Boston Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers (11) follows with a two-run single.
Domingo Santana followed with a two-run double and scored on Eric Thames’ single as the Brewers won 5-2.
“They took advantage of the momentum and it inspired them,” Cole said. “I think in retrospect it was the wrong decision.”
Devers stole second and Masataka Yoshida hit an opposite-field RBI double into the left-field corner for Boston’s first hit, tying it 1-1. Wilyer Abreu followed with a two-run single for a 3-1 lead, and Triston Casas hit into a double play to end the inning.
The Yankees’ previous international walks with no runners on in both innings were in the sixth inning: to the Philadelphia Athletics’ Al Simmons off Roy Sherid leading off the inning on September 22, 1930, and to Washington’s Frank Howard off Fritz Peterson with two outs on April 22, 1970.
Trevor Story singled leading off the fifth inning and stole second. Danny Jansen walked and Enmanuel Valdez flied out to third base. Jarren Duran was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, and Devers hit a knuckle-curve line drive to right field for a 5-1 lead. Tyler O’Neill was hit by a pitch and Yoshida chased Cole with a two-run single.
Cole is 5-6 with a 6.06 ERA in 15 starts against the Red Sox for the Yankees. At the time of the intentional walk, the Yankees led 1-0 on Gleyber Torres’ RBI single in the third inning.
“Once we scored the run, my preference would have been to get after them, but obviously I didn’t express that well enough,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said.
Zach Penrod, a 27-year-old left-hander, made his major league debut for Boston in the eighth inning, replacing Josh Winckowski after Aaron Judge’s leadoff double. He got three outs while managing to draw a walk, striking out Austin Wells and Jazz Chisholm Jr. Penrod’s wife, Kyla, watched the game at Yankee Stadium while holding their week-old daughter, Noa Mae.
